Vanished
by Emerald Tide
Summary: It's nearly impossible for humankind to disappear just because you wished for it. It's even harder for your archenemy to be the only survivor of said wish - but that's exactly what happens to Rima. Now, the two must try to bring humankind back while coming to terms with their emotions and later making the most important decision of their lives. And the worst is still yet to come.
1. Prologue

"How could you say that?"

Rima Mashiro gritted her teeth, trying not to cry, but it was too late. Tears leaked slowly out of her eyes as she screamed again, "How could you?"

Yaya shook her head frantically. "Yaya's sorry! Yaya didn't mean that! Yaya was wrong!"

Amu intervened. "Look, Rima, she was completely wrong, she never thought anything like that, _anything_ –"

Rage filled Rima like never before. So even her best friend was trying to defend the other side. "I hate you! I wish you would all disappear! Every single one of you! Everybody!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Rima saw a shooting star pass. Her head snapped toward it, following its movement, and when she looked back, she gasped.

Amu and Yaya had disappeared, faded into nothingness. Suddenly frightened, she ran into the hallway. Into every single classroom there was. She went everywhere she could think of, even the boys' bathroom.

Everyone was gone.

Rima stood there for a second, stunned, that moment replaying in her head. Her wish had come true.

A strange smile appeared on her face as she went back to that room for her backpack. She put it on and turned towards the door to leave – and was suddenly face-to-face with Nagihiko Fujisaki. Her worst enemy.

* * *

Nagihiko had never been more scared in his life; his face was deathly pale as he ran from room to room, his breathing coming out in short gasps. What had happened? He and Tadase had been having a pleasant conversation – and suddenly, Tadase had disappeared. Was he hallucinating? Was he dreaming? He desperately hoped so, but it didn't feel like it. What was going on?

And it wasn't just Tadase. Everyone else was gone, too.

He needed someone to be there. Anyone. He ran into the room where Amu, Yaya, and Rima – the latter a girl who hated him, the other two his friends – were. _Come on, please, even Rima…_

Only Rima was there, her backpack on her shoulders, ready to go. When she saw Nagihiko, her eyes widened in shock. "Rima-chan, what's going on?" Nagihiko blurted out. "Where's everybody else? Why have they all disappeared?"

Rima gazed at him in slight wonder. "You're still here?" she asked, obviously surprised.

Nagihiko blinked. "You… know something about this?"

**_PLEASE READ THE BELOW PART, EVEN IF YOU NEVER EVER READ AUTHOR'S NOTES. PLEASE. I NEED YOUR HELP. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE WHOLE THING, THEN READ THE PART THAT'S ITALICIZED, BUT NOT BOLDED. I'M BEGGING YOU. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS, YOU _WILL _MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE QUALITY OF THE STORY._**

* * *

**Okay, when I got this idea, I loved it. And once I loved it, I immediately screamed to myself (my name is Emily), "EMILY, WHAT THE **** ARE YOU _DOING_? YOU HAVE _FIVE_ INCOMPLETED STORIES THAT YOU'RE NEVER EVER EVER GOING TO FINISH! FORGET IT! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO START ANOTHER ONE!"**

**So I forgot it… for about six months. And suddenly, the idea resurfaced, and I started daydreaming about it, and I couldn't resist the temptation. So for the one or two people who actually like me and/or my stories in general: I AM SORRY. I WILL PROBABLY NEVER COMPLETE ANY OF THEM. TWO OR THREE AT MOST, IF A MIRACLE HAPPENS.**

_Anyway, this is the part I desperately needed help with. As people who know me well will tell you, I am _amazingly _incompetent in science (and social studies, but that's unrelated); I have forgotten virtually everything I've learned in the past few years. The bulk of my science knowledge is these two sentences: "Electricity comes through wires, I think" and "The sun is a star, I think". I'm not trying to be funny. I'm SERIOUS. So when I have to write a story where humankind disappears, but their machinery doesn't, I'm in big trouble. Here are my questions:_

_1. I know electricity comes through wires (I think), but is there someone (or a bunch of people) regulating the electricity 24/7? And if so, if those people disappeared, would all electricity be shut off all over the world, or would it still work fine? Because if so, Rima's going to be bored, shrouded in darkness, etc. Plus she won't be able to text Nagi. (I'm not joking here; this is actually a small detail in the story.)_

_2. In supermarkets, grocery stores, etc. I know there are security cameras and a bunch of other stuff (I think), but if they catch someone stealing food, does the alarm go off? Will it keep making noise until it runs out of battery (do those things have batteries?) if nobody goes to apprehend the people? Because Rima and Nagi are going to have to eat._

_3. Are shooting stars actually "meteors" or "meteoroids"? Or "comets"? Or "asteroids"? Or some other vague scientific term that I don't actually know the definition of? Well, at least this is actual science (I think)._

_4. Do some people go crazy after not coming in human contact for a long time? I hope the answer is yes, because if it is, I'm going to make Rima one of those people, and that will help convince her to go on the supposedly "dangerous quest" I mentioned in the summary. (See? This isn't just a bunch of useless questions – there's a spoiler here LOL JUST KIDDING THIS SPOILER WAS NOT AT ALL WORTH THE IGNORANT QUESTIONS I HAVE ASKED YOU)_

_These are actually all the questions I currently have, but I promise there will definitely be some later. Also, if there are any more issues with humankind disappearing that you can think of (for example, "blah blah blah will happen if blah blah blah happens, which WILL happen when humans disappear"), then PLEASE tell me. MOST OF THE TIME, I GET REVIEWS THAT BASICALLY SAY, "GREAT JOB". WHILE THESE REVIEWS BOOST MY EGO TREMENDOUSLY, THEY DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP THE STORY. PLEASE AT LEAST TRY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN YOUR REVIEW, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE ANSWERS ARE. EVEN A TINY TIDBIT WILL BE HELPFUL. _ALSO, I CAN'T WRITE THE SECOND CHAPTER WITHOUT AT LEAST THE ANSWER TO NUMBERS 1 AND 3._PLEASE JUST HELP ME._

**Also, I reread this chapter, and I know it's _crazy horrible _– don't try to deny it. I don't want this to be your impression of the story, so I'm going to post the second chapter as soon as I get the answer to numbers 1 and 3, and I promise it'll be better.**

**That's all. And of course, the preview, since I'm obsessed with writing them before I know anything about what I'm going to put in the next chapter.**

* * *

_Preview:_

_Rima's eyes were narrowed. "No, I won't. A stupid scrap of paper with a stupid rhyme and a stupid combination of letters and numbers on it doesn't mean anything."_

_For once, Nagihiko looked as angry as she did. "Look, Rima-chan, if this works, we could bring everyone back! Don't you want to do that?"_

_"I don't! I already told you there's a reason why I made that wish, and that was because I was tired of getting ticked off by humans in general!"_

_"Well, something must have triggered that. Tell me, who said what to you?"_

_Rima looked away. "None of your business."_

_"Well, then, I guess I'll have to go by myself."_

_"Fine."_

_"Fine."_


	2. Letters and Numbers

Even walking home from school, Nagihiko was still trying to prove it wrong. "How is that possible? Shooting stars don't grant wishes! That's just a myth! They're actually meteors, which are meteoroids that got burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, and you can't even _see_ one during the day, and they can't grant wishes because they're _meteors_, which are meteoroids that got burned up, and they come from space, and they don't grant wishes, and you can't see them during the day unless they're really bright or huge, and that's not possible because once they enter the atmosphere they get burned up, and besides, they _don't grant wishes_, because they're meteors, which are meteoroids that –"

Rima rolled her eyes, getting extremely impatient with the boy. "No matter how much scientific data you present, you can't beat the truth. This shooting star granted my wish. Everyone disappeared. That's it, plain and simple. And can you stop repeating the same things over and over?"

"Okay, fine, you got me, but how are we supposed to get everyone back?"

She sighed. "Fujisaki, there's a reason I made the wish, and that's because people in general have been ticking me off for years. Don't ask _me_."

Nagihiko's eyes widened. "I know – let's go find the next shooting star."

Rima checked his face to see if he was serious, and once confirming he was, burst out into laughter. "I never imagined you'd be so desperate. Look, how are you going to track down the next shooting star? Even if you do, it'll probably take a lifetime."

Nagihiko stayed silent. Once they got to Rima's house, she turned. "Hey, why are you still following me?"

"You're the last person in the world," he muttered, staring at the ground and refusing to meet her eyes. "Why can't I?"

"Um, because we're enemies?"

He still wouldn't look at her. "That's for _you_."

She had half a mind to kick him out, then saw his face. Had she… _hurt his feelings _or something? Impossible, of course, but maybe she could torment him a little more. "Okay, okay. Geez. But stay downstairs." Rima went up to her room, leaving Nagihiko downstairs, and got onto her bed –

Wait.

She jumped off, staring at the small piece of paper on her bed. After a second, she picked it up. It said,

**Essential for living, needed every day,**

**Six behind the place the green you lay.**

**LO23E5T7SC41S6 SR15A7R8TK119E10U2MP63E4**

Rima blinked a couple of times. What was this thing? What was with the poem and that weird mix of numbers and letters?

Suddenly, she heard Nagihiko's voice. "Rima-chan?" And then she heard footsteps. She hid the piece of paper behind her back just as he came in the room.

"I told you to stay downstairs!"

He ignored her comment. "What's behind your back?"

"Nothing. Go away."

He shrugged and walked away, and Rima pulled out the piece of paper.

Why was it even here? Could it be a clue to help bring the humans back? Could it be a clue to help secure her wish and make sure the humans _couldn't _come back, no matter what? (Though the only way for the human race to begin again, short of magic, was for her and Nagihiko to have sex, and fat chance of _that_.)

_Well, I guess the only way to find out is to decipher it. _She decided to start with the poem first, because it looked easier. "Essential for living, needed every day." Oxygen, maybe? Was she supposed to collect it or something? But what about "six behind the place the green you lay"? That didn't make sense at all.

And suddenly, Nagihiko was right in front of her. "You _were_ hiding something. Can I see?"

Rima jumped, startled. "No!"

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and Nagihiko sighed. "Sorry, Rima-chan." Then, he plucked the paper from her hands so easily, it was almost embarrassing.

"Hey!" Rima shouted, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't get it back from him. Finally, she gave up, and plopped down on the bed huffily while he read it.

His eyes widened. "Rima-chan, where'd you get this?"

"From my bed. It was just… there."

His mouth dropped open; his eyes brimmed with excitement. "This could be a clue to make the humans appear again!"

"You _are_ desperate," Rima snapped, not mentioning that she'd been thinking the same thing. "How do you know it's not to make sure the people _don't_ come back?"

"Well, the only way for them to come back in our lifetime, at least without magic, is for us to… mate."

"Did you have to say that? And besides, we don't even know where it came from. It could be completely unrelated. It's just you being desperate, I told you. You're looking for connections when there aren't any proven ones. We need proof first."

"Well, we can try, can't we? Let's figure out what the message means first."

Rima's eyes were narrowed. "No, I won't. A stupid scrap of paper with a stupid rhyme and a stupid combination of letters and numbers on it doesn't mean anything."

For once, Nagihiko looked as angry as she did. "Look, Rima-chan, if this works, we could bring everyone back! Don't you want to do that?"

"I don't! I already told you there's a reason why I made that wish, and that was because I was tired of getting ticked off by humans in general!"

"Well, something must have triggered that. Tell me, who said what to you?"

Rima looked away. "None of your business."

"Well, then, I guess I'll have to go by myself."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Still holding the piece of paper, Nagihiko walked out of Rima's house.

* * *

Once out of her house, he sat down on her doorstep, staring at the piece of paper. He knew that the letter-number code definitely meant something – it would probably make the poem a lot easier to decipher – but how would he figure it out? Something about the pattern was familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

_What is it?_

Nagihiko decided to focus on the first segment of the code. He leaned in, staring at it so intently that his face was a few inches away from the paper. Two letters… two numbers… letter… number… letter… number… two letters… two numbers… letter… number… it was a pattern, sure, but –

His eyes widened in recognition, and he practically leaped to his feet in joy. He'd done this before. He knew the exact pattern. He wondered if he should go in and tell Rima, but he shook his head; she wouldn't want to know. She didn't even want the people to come back.

And as he bent over the paper, deciphering the code, he truly believed for the first time that he could do this on his own.

* * *

"Your Highness, what did you want of me?"

She gazed at him evenly, and finally, she murmured, "I did not expect the boy to try it himself. I chose him explicitly because I believed he was the only one who would not. I believed he had the patience to at least show the girl what he had discovered."

"Shall we eliminate him?"

"No. It is too late. We cannot choose anyone else now. The girl needs him." She pressed her lips together. "Alright, then." She whispered something in his ear.

"But, Your Highness –"

"Yes?"

"Is that not a bit… crude?"

"I will decide what is crude and what isn't," she said sharply. "You may go now."

"Yes, Your Highness."

And as he left, she finally allowed a bit of anxiety to enter her expression as she wondered, _Will this work out?_

After all, even she couldn't predict the future.

* * *

**Yay! I updated quick, because I found the two answers I needed :) So, the electricity would run out eventually, but it would still last a long time since they're the only ones using it. My storyline doesn't cover a lot of time, so it's fine. And a shooting star is a meteor – I kind of used freaked-out Nagi to flaunt this new info at the beginning XD**

**So basically, Nagihiko's going to try and recover humankind by himself (why does that sound cool, as opposed to "bring the people back"?). And of course he's going to fail, as I showed in the last scene. O.o**

**Can you figure out the code? The poem is a bit vague, but the code's actually kind of easy – it just looks hard. (It'll be revealed in the next chapter. The answer is actually really lame.)**

**So, that's all. I found an amazingly reliable source of info (my mom LOL), so I started asking her questions. I had to tell her I was writing fanfiction, though. Unrelated comment: the preview will be very short, because I honestly don't know how much or what I'm going to write in my next chapter.**

**Bye!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"I can't figure out your stupid code things!" she shrieked. "Just tell me, please…" She began to sob._

_And suddenly, new writing began to appear._

**_Nagihiko Fujisaki was able to figure it out._**

_ "Well, I'm not as smart as Fujisaki! There!" Her frustration gave way to pure anger. Why did she feel like the piece of paper was taunting her? "I just want to _find him, _you stupid thing! I'm not in the mood for codes! Why can't you give me a straight answer?"_


	3. Baseball Bat

Staring from her window, Rima frowned as she watched him leave the porch and walk away from her house, staring down at the piece of paper, the grin evident on his face. _Did he figure out something?_ She thought about sucking it up and going down to ask him what he'd discovered, but shook her head. It wasn't worth her pride. _Besides, he'll come back later._

He didn't come back, though, not that day and not the next. Though she did fine on her own (unlike what other people thought, she actually knew how to cook and do chores), and convinced herself she didn't care whether he came back or not, she still watched for him every day.

Though she wouldn't admit it to herself, she was kind of worried.

And then that strange feeling came …

* * *

Nagihiko stepped into the supermarket, still thinking about the poem. The code he had figured out – it was the location: CLOSEST SUPERMARKET. The poem wasn't so easy. "Essential for living, needed every day" was probably not oxygen; how could you collect oxygen in a supermarket? So then it had to be…

Water.

He was so stupid.

Of course. And the water bottles were sold with the juice, which happened to be six aisles down from the checkout line. "Six behind the place the green you lay." "Green" was money. He ran to the place the juice (and water) was sold.

Nothing miraculous happened. The humans didn't suddenly appear. Nothing. "What am I supposed to do now?" he asked the empty place, and instinctively pulled out the piece of paper. The words had changed.

**Go to Hinamori Amu's house.**

So he went. Well, duh.

* * *

The feeling started small – a strange suffocating pressure on her chest, making it slightly hard to breathe. But after only a week, it got to the point where she was crying all the time, even in her sleep, not knowing what was making her so upset, only feeling like if it didn't get resolved, she was going to die.

Rima figured it out after discovering that watching movies helped – well, while she was watching them. After she did, she would cry even harder, feeling completely miserable. She figured it out after discovering she wanted to hug one of the people in the movie, even if he was the evil guy who would instantly blast her to pieces.

She needed humans. She needed human company.

This was so pathetic, she told herself. And it was. She was the one who had made that wish, and now she was literally going crazy because of it. Her "disease" reached the ultimate highest in the second week, when she began hallucinating that Nagihiko Freaking Fujisaki was back.

Nagihiko Fujisaki.

She needed him. She needed _anyone_. She needed to see someone again, or she was going to die. And Nagihiko was the last person in the world she could see.

But even after two weeks of feeling like she was slowly being drowned, Rima still had some sense left in her. She had no idea what that piece of paper had said; it could be instructions on how to fly a plane and she wouldn't know. He could be anywhere in the world.

On the third day of the second week, she stopped crying. And just as she'd finally given up, surrendered herself to insanity, a piece of paper appeared in her clenched fist.

A piece of paper, like the one that had appeared before when she needed help. The one that Nagihiko had taken. Hurriedly, she unfolded it.

**To ensure the human race's survival,**

**You must go here and find your rival.**

**H1U3OS24E5 FO21 H1I8MA54R7I2NO36 A1U3M2**

Another code. Of all the things that could have benefited her, she got a code.

Normally, she would have tried to figure it out, but she had just nearly given up. "I can't figure out your stupid code things!" she shrieked. "Just tell me, please…" She began to sob again.

And suddenly, new writing began to appear.

**Nagihiko Fujisaki was able to figure it out.**

"Well, I'm not as smart as Fujisaki! There!" Her frustration gave way to pure anger. Why did she feel like the piece of paper was taunting her? "I just want to _find him_, you stupid thing! I'm not in the mood for codes! Why can't you give me a straight answer?"

**H1U3OS24E5 FO21 H1I8MA54R7I2NO36 A1U3M2 = HOUSE OF HINAMORI AMU**

**You need to learn patience. The code is quite easy; it just looks hard. That's what he figured out.**

Rima ignored the last three sentences. "House of Hinamori Amu?" She had to go to Amu's house? Why would he be there? "Why would he be there?" she voiced curiously, wiping away her tears.

**This is what I am talking about. You need to learn patience. First go. You should be grateful.**

"Thank you," she murmured, stuffing the paper into her pocket. Jumping off her bed, she ran downstairs, quickly put on her shoes, and made her way towards Amu's house. When she got there, her eyes grew wide.

Nagihiko. He was lying on Amu's doorstep, his eyes shut tight; there was a nasty-looking bump on his head. Rima darted towards him, kneeling down and checking his pulse. He was alive, but... "How long has he been here?" she asked the paper, taking it out. Three weeks ago, if someone had told her she would be communicating with a piece of paper, she would have thought they were crazy. But here she was, doing that exact thing.

**Two weeks.**

"But… it's just a bump… and it should have healed… and that's how long…" She shook her head; why was she still questioning its logic? Nothing made sense now. She had to accept that.

Nagihiko stirred. "R… Rima-chan?"

Rima's eyes widened. "Are you okay?"

He moaned. "Yeah, I guess. I've been here a long time, haven't I?"

"Two weeks. Oh," she said quickly, as his jaw dropped, "you were kind of right. I got a bit… lonely." She blushed, even as she scolded herself for making the understatement of the century. _I guess pride still matters to me, after all this._

Nagihiko sat up and grinned. All his energy seemed to be back. "So you'll help me?"

"Yeah, I guess." She couldn't help but smile; it felt so good to be talking to another human being again. (Even if it was Nagihiko Freaking Fujisaki.) "Oh, and how'd you get that bump?"

His demeanor changed completely. He looked down. "Um…"

Rima raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Yes…?"

"You'll get freaked out. Even I'm freaked out."

"Try me."

Taking a deep breath, Nagihiko exhaled and blurted out, "Someone hit me over the head with something. I think it was a baseball bat."

Silence. He glanced over at her, and saw that she was shaking slightly. Yup, he _had_ freaked her out. Finally, she spoke. "But we're the only ones in the world…"

"I guess it's for the same reason that I was spared. There must be somebody else that also didn't disappear because of your wish."

"But why would he try to knock you out?"

Another long, agonizing silence. Rima bit her lip, trying not to show her fear. "Let's go back to my house," she muttered. "I'll get you some ice."

* * *

This time, when he walked in, the queen spoke first. "The girl needs to learn some patience."

"So I see from your notes to her, Your Highness."

"Well, she is afraid now, of this mysterious 'person'. So is he." She paused. "Do you think that is all right?"

"In my humble opinion, Your Highness, I actually think that is excellent. Maybe a bit of fear is what that girl needs to let go of her pride."

"True. And the boy."

"Your Highness, does the boy have pride? Enough to hinder them, I mean?"

"Oh, yes. He does not show it easily. He does not act haughty. But he does have secrets that he is very protective of. So does the girl. They may seem like opposites, but they are in fact very alike, in terms of secrecy."

"I know their secrets, but they don't know each other's…" A smile spread across her face. "It will be fun to watch them find out, don't you think?"

He nodded. "Very, Your Highness. Very."

* * *

**Okay… I must admit, I really have no reason to update this story so fast, as it's one of my least popular multi-chapter stories. :( But that doesn't change the fact that it's one of my favorite stories to write – I don't even really enjoy writing my most popular stories, at least not currently. I know, I'm stupid. -_- (I want to scream "WHY IS THIS STORY SO UNPOPULAR", but that would be bratty…)**

**Also, forget what I said about Rima and Nagi texting each other being a minor detail. I changed the storyline a little, and this time it doesn't involve cell phones.**

_NOTE: I have changed the subcategory from "Supernatural" to "Fantasy," just in case there are any problems with "Fantasy" stories (though I doubt it). I'm just making sure._

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"Wait, so this is the place that piece of paper said for us to go to?" she asked, looking at the park bench._

_"Yup, this exact park bench."_

_Rima shrugged. "Let's sit on it."_

_They did, and all of a sudden, there was a huge flash of light, and Rima and Nagihiko had disappeared._

_So had the park bench._


	4. Figure It Out

When they got back to Rima's house, she had gotten ahold of herself. "Okay, Fujisaki, if you want to live in my house, you have to follow my rules." Honestly, if he had refused, she would have gotten down on her knees and begged for him to live with her, as she'd had enough of human isolation. But fortunately, he just sighed and nodded, sparing her pride.

"Yes, Rima-chan?"

"Do all the chores."

Nagihiko's eyes widened, and to her surprise, his face turned slightly red. "Um…"

"What?"

"I… don't know how to operate the dishwasher. And the laundry machine…"

Rima stared at him incredulously. "It's called a washing machine!"

"See?"

She rolled her eyes. "How can you not know –"

"Baaya does the chores." He looked away.

"Oh, right, you're _rich_." She rolled her eyes again. "I don't want you to flood the house or anything… so… do you know how to mop the floor? Or sweep it? Or whatever?"

"No."

"Do you know how to clean anything?"

"No."

"Alright, seriously, do you know how to do anything that might be beneficial?"

"It depends."

"You're useless," Rima snapped, glancing towards the window. For some reason, she'd felt like someone was… watching her? Nope, just her imagination. _I should stop being so paranoid. The doors are locked, anyway._

If she had turned back a second earlier, she would have seen his slightly angry expression as she called him useless. But a moment later, he had his usual oblivious smile on his face. "Can you get me some ice now?"

She stared at his head. "The bump. It's gone."

He touched it. "You're right," he agreed, looking surprised. "But how?"

Rima took a deep breath. "I want to find out," she whispered, barely audible. All the strength seemed to have been sucked out of her; her bravado was completely gone. "This shouldn't be happening. I-it's scary." Pieces of paper that could communicate? Wounds that stayed intact for two weeks and then completely healed? Humankind disappearing because of a stupid wish? Her heart pounded – that _was_ scary, and she'd had enough of fear. She needed to know what was happening, or else she was going to go crazy, like those two weeks before she'd found Nagihiko lying in front of Amu's house.

She needed to know.

Nagihiko watched her blankly. Finally, he closed his eyes and pulled out the piece of paper.

It had changed. Again.

Nagihiko read the address out loud. "Isn't that a park?"

Rima glanced up at him, then looked down again. "Let's go," she muttered.

* * *

The stupid thing had led them to a bench. One right next to the bathrooms.

Pleasant.

"Wait, so this is the place that piece of paper said for us to go to?" she asked, looking at the park bench.

"Yup, this exact bench."

Rima shrugged. "Let's sit on it."

They did, and all of a sudden, there was a huge flash of light, and Rima and Nagihiko had disappeared.

So had the park bench.

* * *

"So you are Rima Mashiro and Nagihiko Fujisaki."

Rima opened her eyes and gasped.

They (including the bench) were in a small, dimly lit, relatively normal room – one that couldn't seem to hold the spirit, the… well… _hugeness_of the being sitting in the chair in front of them. Her first impression of the thing was "being" because she wasn't human.

She – it looked female to Rima – had a face almost like Voldemort's in the _Harry Potter _movies, the difference being that while Voldemort's face was pale, hers was almost black. That was really the only external difference, but she gave off the impression of being eerily beautiful. Voldemort was just creepy.

"Who are you?" Nagihiko asked, looking as transfixed as Rima.

"There is no answer for that."

"How can you not know?" Rima asked bemusedly.

She shook her head. "You misunderstand," she said calmly. "I am just me. I am nobody other than myself. I do not have a designated persona or identity. However, if you are asking what to refer to me as, the question that so many humans actually mean when they ask others who they are, you may call me whatever you like. I prefer Queen or Your Majesty, however."

Rima had gotten over her shock, and was feeling a bit impatient. "Okay, whatever. Can you explain? What's going on? Why are all these weird things happening?"

"You need to learn patience."

"You're the piece of paper."

"No. I did not transform into the piece of paper; I merely used it as a communication device."

She scowled. "Okay, then, why didn't you tell me what was going on earlier? And you still didn't answer my question – what _is_ going on, anyway?"

"You need to learn patience."

Rima felt the last of her patience draining away. "Tell me_ now_, _what is going_ –"

"Wait!" Nagihiko, who had stayed silent until this moment, interrupted. "Your Majesty, why was Rima-chan's wish granted?"

The queen smiled. "Do you want to know what I am the queen of?" She didn't wait for his answer. "I am the queen of all things magical. I rule solely in this universe, however, and most of the time, there is no need to do anything. Oh, occasionally I help or perhaps harm the humans a little, but the inhabitants here do not believe in magic. I do not even grant wishes… usually. But you, Rima Mashiro, are interesting, and you have a few life lessons to learn. So I granted your wish. Also, the codes and other things that have been happening were to make things a bit more… interesting, for lack of a better word."

"Why is Fujisaki here then?"

"He is interesting too."

Rima's mouth dropped open. "What –"

"Your Majesty," Nagihiko said quickly, "how can we bring the humans back?" Rima pressed her lips together and glared at the floor.

"I thought you'd never ask." The queen stood up and snapped her fingers; eight huge diamonds appeared in the air above them. "These diamonds represent your secrets and negative memories. You each have four." She snapped her fingers again, and the diamonds disappeared. "Figure out the rest yourself."

"What?" Rima protested. "But that –"

"You need to learn patience."

And suddenly, the room disappeared. They were back in the park, sitting on the bench. Rima immediately started fuming. "What the heck?" she shouted. "What was that? She shows us some diamonds and tells us to figure out everything ourselves? I didn't even learn anything about our situation, except that she spared you and granted my wish because she thought we were 'interesting'! How are we supposed to bring back –"

"Rima-chan, she's trying to send me a message!"

Rima fell silent, but it was too late. Nagihiko had lost the message. He rubbed his temples, trying to bring it back. "I lost it," he said. "But it was something about this bench."

"Sorry," she muttered, and then snorted. "She must really love this bench, though," she added, poking said bench.

_ I didn't know she knew how to apologize,_ Nagihiko thought.

* * *

The queen closed her eyes. _That girl is worse than I thought. Well, at least she knows how to apologize._ She would have to make some changes to the eight challenges – a certain Rima Mashiro needed to be humbled. Preferably in front of the boy. For now, though, there was no hope for her.

She'd have to rely on the boy to figure it out.

* * *

**I think I'm starting to get an updating pattern. One day, four days, one day again. O.o I hope quick updating doesn't minimize the number of reviews, though. (Hey, everyone likes reviews, whether they want to admit it or not. Besides, once I updated five chapters in one day, and ended up regretting it when I only got two or three reviews for them… and I used to update every two months or so…)**

**Anyway, the actual drama will come with either the next chapter or the chapter after that. The plot is actually going quite fast, though – this part was supposed to come in around the fifteenth chapter (yes, I know, I suck). Then again, I was going to have more than a hundred chapters – I'm not exaggerating. And after the drama, there's going to be more drama, then fluff, then more drama. Sadness…**

**Bye, and again, please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"Wait, I'm getting another message!" Nagihiko shouted. Rima sighed and stopped talking. After a few seconds, Nagihiko opened his eyes. "There's a challenge with each diamond… I think… but we have to go sit on the bench to go do the challenge… or… something? Sorry, it's kind of vague."_

_"The bench? Seriously?"_

_"Well, let's go try. It can't hurt."_


	5. Dreams

The rest of that day was kind of awkward. Nagihiko was in a daze, every bit of his being focused on remembering that first message from the queen; therefore, he barely noticed Rima at all. The only time she talked to him (which was to ask him what he wanted for dinner), he responded with a simple shrug and went back to futilely trying to recover the message.

On the other hand, Rima had gotten over her joy at human contact quite quickly (it _was_ her worst enemy, after all), and was now feeling his presence so acutely it was almost painful (it was even worse because he seemed to be ignoring her). She tried to distract herself by guessing what the diamonds were supposed to be for and what the two of them were supposed to do, but as the queen hadn't given them any other clues, she had no idea. So it didn't really work out.

Neither of them fell asleep before midnight, and when they did, they were not so much sleeping as dozing, right on the edge of being awake, waiting for something to happen…

* * *

"Dreams will do. Just to remind them of their relationship."

"I understand, Your Highness. Two dreams."

"No. Many dreams. Many memories intersected together."

"Yes, Your Highness."

* * *

_"We have a new transfer student. Please welcome Nagihiko Fujisaki!"_

_"Hi. Nagihiko, right? Let's be friends! Can I call you Nagi?"_

_"Amu, I can't trust him."_

_"Hey, Nagihiko, I should tell you something. Rima's kind of… shy around other people, okay? I'm sure you can make friends with her, though. I did."_

_"Why does Amu spend so much time with _you_? You're not worth it."_

_"You're such a freak. Your hair alone makes me sick."_

_"Hey, Nagi, why does Rima act so weird around you? She's even worse than she was with me. Did you do something to her?"_

_"You got chosen to play the part of Cinderella? How pathetic."_

_"I feel kind of guilty. I think Rima really wanted to do the project with me."_

_"And… why exactly do you think I'd want to trade partners with you?"_

_"Nagi, you're so good at basketball! Maybe you could teach Rima."_

_"Amu, you want him to teach me how to play basketball? Forget it. I wouldn't even play with someone I liked."_

_"These cookies are so delicious… I wish Rima were here, but she had to go shopping."_

_"Um, no, I don't want to go to your house. I'm not Amu, Fujisaki."_

_"What's wrong with Rima, Nagi? You seem to avoid her. She's not that bad, is she?"_

_"Look, Fujisaki, I'm tired. Can you just leave me alone?"_

_"You know, Rima is actually kind of sweet, once you get to know her. What did you do to make her have such a grudge against you?"_

_"Oh, Rima's in the science room… she doesn't want to talk to us right now. She's kind of upset, I think."_

_"Shut up! I'm not crying! Leave me alone!"_

_"And why would I give you a chance? You've ruined my life!"_

_"I hate you, Fujisaki!"_

Nagihiko's eyes flew open, and for a couple moments, he just lay there, staring up at the ceiling. Then, he checked his watch.

2:30 a.m. Great. He closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep again, but it was impossible now.

Why did these memories have to come back today? He'd pushed that day in the science room to the back of the room ever since it had happened, and he couldn't afford to remember it now. Not now, when it was so crucial to get along with Rima. They had to save humankind. No, he couldn't concentrate on his emotions. He had to concentrate on figuring out the task they had to accomplish.

And since he couldn't sleep, he might as well do just that.

* * *

_"Let's give our transfer student, Rima Mashiro, a warm welcome!"_

_"Rima-sama!"_

_"Hi, I'm Amu Hinamori!"_

_"Today, we'll be studying how some manga artists draw. We'll start with the newest volume of Gag Manga Daioh. Everyone pass the copies down."_

_"Oh, well. She's still the most beautiful girl in school. We will still serve her, despite what happened in class today."_

_"Rima, it's okay! I used to be like that, too."_

_"We have a new transfer student. Please welcome Nagihiko Fujisaki!"_

_"Hi. Nagihiko, right? Let's be friends! Can I call you Nagi?"_

_"Sorry, Rima. I have to go work on a project with Nagi."_

_"Rima-chan, I'm really sorry Amu couldn't go."_

_"Nagi's going to teach me to play basketball today. Maybe Yaya can go!"_

_"Rima-chan, are you okay?"_

_"Rima, why didn't you say so earlier? I'm going to Nagi's to bake cookies!"_

_"Rima-sama, have you heard? Fujisaki Nagihiko is the best in every single sport taught in school."_

_"And first is Fujisaki-san, with a score of 100. Second is Mashiro-san, with a score of 98."_

_"Mashiro-san, you really need to improve on your running. Look at Fujisaki-san; he was the fastest."_

_"Hey, Rima, maybe Nagi could help you. He got a perfect score on the same test."_

_"Oh, Rima-chan? She's okay, but I really don't get why she hates me so much."_

_"Rima, why do you hate Nagi so much? I think he's cool!"_

_"Rima-chan, just give me a chance! Please!"_

_"Rima-chan!"_

Rima shot out of bed, gasping. Shaking and trying to calm her pounding heart, she closed her eyes and began to count out loud – a trick she'd learned from Amu. "One… two… three… four… five…" she murmured as softly as possible. It wouldn't do any good to wake Nagihiko up.

That thought soon disappeared as soon as she checked the clock; it was 11:30 a.m. Groaning, she dragged herself out of bed and just changed clothes, not in the mood to take a shower.

Why had that memory come back now, of all times? In hindsight, it was probably logical, as she was stuck in a world void of any other humans for company, but she didn't feel that way. And it was probably also the worst time for her to remember things like this. Nagihiko had ignored her all day yesterday. What was going on? He'd seemed perfectly okay with talking to her before.

Rima walked downstairs. "Hey, Fujisaki," she called.

No reply. "Fujisaki!"

"I'm here," came the soft, slightly drowsy reply. "What is it?"

She paused. What _was_ it? Shaking her head once to clear her thoughts, she asked, "Where are you?"

"Living room."

Nagihiko was lying on a sofa, blinking blearily up at her. "I didn't really get much sleep," he managed weakly.

"I got too much. What do you want for lunch?"

He yawned and closed his eyes. "Rima-chan, maybe I should cook this time. You cooked dinner, and besides, I'm living in your house. I feel kind of guilty." The truth was that he was afraid of getting poisoned – not that he would ever admit it. (Though he'd survived yesterday's dinner. But still.)

"Do you even know how to cook? I thought you didn't know how to do anything useful."

"I took classes."

"Oh, really –"

"Wait, I'm getting another message!" Nagihiko shouted. Rima sighed and stopped talking. After a few seconds, Nagihiko opened his eyes. "There's a challenge with each diamond… I think… but we have to go sit on the bench to go do the challenge… or… something? Sorry, it's kind of vague."

"The bench? Seriously?"

"Well, let's go try. It can't hurt."

"Now? I'm hungry." Then, unconsciously, she shuddered. "Don't make that face."

He stared curiously. "What face was I making?"

"A creepy one. Let's go," she snapped, forgetting about her hunger. She stood up, and slowly, Nagihiko pushed himself up from the sofa and followed her outside.

Rima may not have felt nervous, but Nagihiko did. _What am I getting myself into?_

* * *

They got to the bench and sat.

Nothing happened.

"Are you sure you got it right? Nothing's happening," Rima said, stating the obvious.

"Um… I… wait… what?" He turned to her. "This is going to sound really weird."

"Go ahead."

"One of us has to raise their hand. Well, that's what the queen says."

"Does she think we're in school?" He didn't reply, and she groaned. "Okay, whatever." Rima lifted her arm into the air, and all three (Rima, Nagihiko, and the bench) disappeared.

* * *

**My updating pattern was broken. (LOL THERE WAS NEVER EVEN A PATTERN) But whatever. Anyway, I'm sorry this chapter was shorter than usual, but the next scene was going to be pretty long, and I want my chapters to be mostly even, so… yeah.**

**Yes, the "raising hand" thing actually has a lot of significance. You'll see later on. What did you think of the dreams? Well, they weren't really dreams – just a bunch of random quotes I made up on the spot – but still.**

**So I've finally planned out some more of the plot (and made a bunch of major changes, because I'm extremely fickle), and I think I can say that Rhythm and Kusukusu will definitely be making an appearance in the story. I'm not so sure about Temari, because for her to appear in the story, I'd have to make an OC to go with her. But even if she does appear, she'll be a lot less important than Rhythm or Kusukusu. They will play a MAJOR role in helping – ENOUGH SPOILERS SHUT UP EMILY**

**Random comment: I'm extremely proud of the preview, though I have no idea how I'm going to solve the problem presented in it. Oh, well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. (I can't believe I'm using that saying.)  
**

**Okay, that's it. Bye and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_Slowly, the deadly plants grew higher and higher into the air, and the walls of the maze grew with them. "Nagihiko!" Rima screamed, but it was no use. The vines wrapped tightly around her arms, legs, and body, rendering her helpless._

_Nagihiko felt just as helpless as her, as he could do nothing but watch. Soon, she was so high up that he could barely see her, let alone help her – though he would be just as unable to do anything if she was closer to the ground. He knew that if he touched the things, they would tie him up, too. What was he supposed to do now?_


	6. Vines

Rima's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Where are we?" she mumbled, half to herself.

"It looks like a maze."

She stood up from the bench. "What?"

Nagihiko was right. It was a maze, one of those old-fashioned things in storybooks where the walls were made of neatly trimmed bushes and leaves. "It's a maze. I think we're supposed to get out or something."

Unconsciously, Rima groaned; she should have known something like this was going to happen. "Well, if it's a maze, then of course we're supposed to get out. Do you know any tricks for finding your way through a maze, then?"

"Well, I've heard if you put your hand on one wall and keep going along it, you'll get out eventually… but it'll take a long time, and I'm not even sure if it works."

"It's the only thing we've got." Rima tentatively placed her hand on the wall and faced him. "Let's go." She stopped at his terrified expression. "What?"

"L-look down, and don't make any –" he began to whisper, but was stopped by Rima's scream.

The once neat, perfect bushes had been slowly unwinding, creeping around Rima's ankles. Now, however, they sprang into action, quickly binding her arms and legs together so fast she couldn't even try to escape. The rope-like vegetation thickened, growing larger and larger, until they were about half as thick as Rima's body itself.

Slowly, the deadly plants grew higher and higher into the air, and the walls of the maze grew with them. "Nagihiko!" Rima screamed, but it was no use. The vines wrapped tightly around her arms, legs, and body, rendering her helpless.

Nagihiko felt just as helpless as her, as he could do nothing but watch. Soon, she was so high up that he could barely see her, let alone help her – though he would be just as unable to do anything if she was closer to the ground. He knew that if he touched the things, they would tie him up, too. What was he supposed to do now?

As soon as she yelled his name, she regretted it. The plants seemed to react to movement, and when her throat vibrated, they immediately wrapped around it, choking her.

This couldn't be happening. She was going to die.

And suddenly, she heard the voice of – there really was nobody else – the queen. _Stop panicking, or you will die._

"H-help," she moaned, but all that resulted in was the vines squeezing tighter around her neck, making stars appear in front of her eyes.

_Speak through thoughts. Do not use your voice._

_Help me!_

_Help yourself. This is a test._

_It's an unfair test! I'm dying! _It was quite true. She was losing air, and every time she gasped for it, she was choked some more.

_A mirror, a fantasy story, a test score. What these things have in common… is the information you need to save your life._

_What the heck? Just tell me how to get out of here! Why are you giving me more codes? _But the voice was gone. She tried to suck in more air, but the plants' grip was too tight. The rest of her life now depended on the ability to hold her breath.

_A mirror… a fantasy story… and a test score? _Rima was too weak to even feel panicked now. _I'm going to die. I'm going to die._

And suddenly, her eyes snapped open. _What am I thinking? I can't die. _It wasn't really about herself now. She had erased humankind with a single wish. If she died, she would change history. So many things would happen because of her. The human race would never have reached its full potential. A new alien species could evolve. And Nagihiko…

She never imagined she'd be worrying about him, but all of a sudden, all she could remember were those two weeks after he'd walked away with the piece of paper. Even though he'd been excited at the thought of bringing everyone back again, and she had led him on (somewhat), he'd essentially left her, and she'd suffered because of it. It wouldn't be long before he was suffering like she was. Forget their past. Forget what they'd gone through.

She couldn't leave him to something like that.

Maybe it was the new, unfamiliar emotions swirling through her. Maybe it was that she had just realized she kind of cared about Nagihiko after all. But whatever it was, inspiration struck, and she could practically feel a lightbulb flash above her head.

A test score.

Her dream. A small memory, one that blended in perfectly with the rest of the negative ones toward Nagihiko Fujisaki.

_"First is Fujisaki-san, with a score of 100. Second is Mashiro-san, with a score of 98."_

She'd studied for weeks, trying to outdo him in his best subject, and failed anyway. Later, feeling bitter, she'd tried to console herself. _A test score…_

_A mirror. A fantasy story. They're all…_

"An illusion," she whispered. The vines tightened even more around her throat, and her vision went black.

The last thing she felt was the sensation of falling, falling, falling…

* * *

"Rima-chan!"

Rima's eyes opened. "What happened?"

Nagihiko stood up and scratched the back of his head in a surprisingly sheepish way. "I have no idea. One moment, you were up there, tied up by those plants, and suddenly, I woke up here. And you were right next to me." He gestured around. "Not much to behold, huh?"

Also standing up, Rima looked around. Nagihiko's comment was an understatement; the place was completely white, so much that she couldn't tell where the horizon or ground was, or how far it stretched (it didn't even look like it ended). Then, she remembered what had happened. Sighing, she explained the whole "illusion" thing to him, making sure to leave out her emotions and ending with, "I still didn't really get it, though."

"Well, I guess it was just a riddle. The whole thing – you being grabbed and choked by plants – was just an illusion, and as soon as you figured it out, the illusion disappeared." His eyes widened. "Rima-chan… you…"

"Huh?" She looked down at herself, and when the sight registered, her face filled with utter horror. "I'm growing transparent."

As soon as the last word came out of her mouth, she disappeared completely. Nagihiko stepped back in shock. "Rima… chan?" he said slowly, looking around. In the process, he somehow stumbled and ended up sitting down. He tried to stand up again.

And realized he couldn't move his body.

Before he had time to freak out, a large image appeared in front of him, somewhat like a TV screen. It was in color (he was a bit thankful for that, as the rest of the world around him was white, excluding himself). Then, he managed to fully process the image – well, it wasn't really an image; to be precise, it was a video of a junior high classroom. The students were wiggling in their seats, anxious for class to be over. _Normal,_ he thought. Then, his gaze rested on one of the students.

The girl was a bit younger than he was used to. The hair reached mid-back instead of her waist, she leaned a bit more towards the "cute" side rather than "beautiful", and she was even more petite than he thought she could be.

But there was no doubt that it was a younger Rima.

* * *

When Rima got her bearings back, she realized that she was in – of all places – her history classroom in Sakura Junior High, before she'd moved and started going to Seiyo; students were writing down notes all around her, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She tried to leap out of her seat, but realized that she couldn't move her body. More accurately, someone else was controlling it, as said person was fidgeting in her seat.

Great.

The person controlling her body looked down, and Rima took the chance to study herself. She had wavy blonde hair down to the middle of her back, and… _Wait, isn't my hair down to my waist?_

Then, she heard the teacher say, "We're going to start a new project now." And as the teacher described said project, Rima's heart sank. She remembered what the queen had said: _"These diamonds represent your secrets and negative memories." _An image appeared in her head now, one of Nagihiko sitting in that empty white place she'd been before. A screen-like video was flashing in front of him. A video of her younger self, going through the exact motions she currently was.

Rima wanted to do something she couldn't remember doing before the day she'd made that wish: cry. She'd finally figured out exactly what was happening.

She was going to relive one of her "negative memories", and Nagihiko was going to watch it.

* * *

**AUGH THIS ONE WAS SHORT TOO I'M SORRY BUT THE NEXT SCENE IS LONG I KNOW SAME EXCUSE AS LAST TIME**

**Ahem. Anyway, I thought up what the solution to the plant thing should be, but it was really weird. Of course it had to be a riddle. -_- But I really couldn't think of anything else that wouldn't require Rima or Nagi to do anything physically, so… yeah.**

**I just reread the whole thing, and I've just realized it was kind of random. And way too fast-paced. Although I guess that's kind of my style – basically just slam everything into the readers' faces as fast as possible, one scene right after another, until the reader gets kind of… I don't know. O.o**

**So yes, I've revealed almost all (if not all) of the information I kept secret in the past chapters by now. Basically the only question remaining is: What will happen next? And that's the question asked for all incomplete stories. Except the really bad, cliché ones where you already ****_know_**** what's going to happen next.**

**The preview will happen really early in the next chapter. Just saying. Also, a random comment about it: Utau is a lot more significant in Rima's past than the preview lets on.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_Nagihiko couldn't help but be a bit surprised at the difference in personality between the younger Rima and the older one. The former was malicious in a subtle, suggestive way; the latter was blatantly mean. He wasn't sure which was better._

_On the screen, Utau's eyes narrowed. "And I suppose you're going to sit around and do nothing, and get an A for my work?"_

_Rima shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, unless you want to get an F. Because I'm horrible at social studies, like I said before." The bell rang. Instantly, a bunch of fanboys swarmed around her, shouting indistinct words. "Oh, look, I have to go tend to my slaves now. Good luck on the project, Hoshina." She stood up and walked away, not looking back once._

_The retreating Rima might not have noticed the fury in Utau's eyes, but Nagihiko certainly did. Despite how she had treated both him and Utau, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Rima as Utau hissed under her breath, "You'll regret this, you spoiled brat."_


	7. Clothes

Nagihiko had finally figured out what was going on – he'd remembered that the queen had said something about "negative memories," and this was Rima's. At first, he'd wondered where the real Rima was, and how she would feel once he finished watching this. However, he couldn't deny that he pushed those worries to the back of his mind as soon as the teacher spoke. This was interesting, and he was going to focus on it.

After a while, the teacher began to ramble on about some project. Rima – along with half the class – yawned, obviously wishing they could get out of the room. They were assigned partners, and Nagihiko couldn't help but feel something was going to happen when the teacher called, "Rima Mashiro and Utau Hoshina" and the latter, a blonde with pretty violet-colored eyes and eyebrows that seemed to always slant down in a frown, cast a scornful, slightly frustrated glance at the former.

Finally, they were instructed to go "discuss" the project for about thirty seconds before leaving (which even Nagihiko had to admit was quite pointless – what was there to discuss in half a minute?). Utau immediately walked towards Rima and began, "Okay, I've figured out who's going to do what. I'll do the parts involving –"

"I'm awful at history, or social studies, or whatever other names this class goes by," the cute amber-eyed girl interrupted, glancing at her nails disinterestedly. "I'm nearly failing, in fact. So I think you'd do a lot better working on the project alone; I'd just hinder you, and I've also heard that you have a perfect record when it comes to this subject? Obviously that explains your excitement for such a senseless assignment. I don't do things that won't help me later in life, and this is certainly one of them. I plan to just forget about a task like this completely."

Nagihiko couldn't help but be a bit surprised at the difference in personality between the younger Rima and the older one. The former was malicious in a subtle, suggestive way; the latter was blatantly mean. He wasn't sure which was better.

On the screen, Utau's eyes narrowed. "And I suppose you're going to sit around and do nothing, and get an A for my work?"

Rima shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, unless you want to get an F. Because I'm horrible at social studies, like I said before." The bell rang. Instantly, a bunch of fanboys swarmed around her, shouting indistinct words. "Oh, look, I have to go tend to my slaves now. Good luck on the project, Hoshina." She stood up and walked away, not looking back once.

The retreating Rima might not have noticed the fury in Utau's eyes, but Nagihiko certainly did. Despite how she had treated both him and Utau, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Rima as Utau hissed under her breath, "You'll regret this, you spoiled brat." It was kind of like watching a movie, to be honest, because he knew something was going to happen, and despite everything that had happened before, he wanted to call out to her in a warning.

The next few classes literally passed in a blur – Nagihiko assumed it was because they didn't stand out in Rima's mind. Finally, the fast-forward stopped inside a female locker room; apparently it was P.E. Instantly, his face turned bright red, even though most of the girls were already fully dressed. _Why here? _

He figured out soon enough.

* * *

Rima was being tortured – she felt worse than when she'd been choked by huge plants. And this was the most horrible part. Part of her wished she had no idea what was going to happen. Part of her was _glad_ she knew what was going to happen. And the third part just cursed the queen for making Nagihiko watch.

She had pretty much lost all her pride with one blow, and the worst part hadn't even happened yet. _Come on, just spare me, _she pleaded to the queen, but received no answer. _I hate you, just so you know._

As if on cue, the younger Rima began glancing around the room, head whipping from side to side in an almost comedic fashion. It seemed she'd finally realized her clothes were missing. _I was so stupid in junior high. People really do get smarter as they become older, I guess._

But of course, she was lying to herself.

She would have stayed stupid if Utau Hoshina hadn't entered her life.

* * *

_Rima crouched down, looking everywhere. Where the heck were her clothes? Both her P.E. uniform and her normal attire were gone._

_She was snapped out of her thoughts by the giggles of girls around her. Looking up, she saw – she should've guessed – Utau. "Where are my clothes?" she demanded, standing._

_Utau stared at her with mock curiosity. "Go find them yourself, Mashiro-san. Or perhaps you won't. After all, I thought you didn't do things that didn't help you later in life? Your junior high school uniform won't help you land a job when you're an adult." Rima suddenly noticed that all the girls in the room were now fully dressed, and now they filed out of the room, every single one of them smirking. She was alone._

_Conflicting thoughts swirled through Rima's head. Bending down, she took her cell phone out of her backpack – thank goodness Utau hadn't taken that, too._

_But who would help her? She couldn't call her parents or anything, and Utau must have hidden the clothes in this room. But after fifteen minutes of searching, she still hadn't found them._

_That left her with only one choice._

Well, at least I'm in my underclothes, _she thought weakly as she picked up the cell phone and texted "Slave #1," the third number in her contacts._

* * *

His mind screamed one thing at him, and one thing only: _She's going to call one of her fans. SHE'S GOING TO CALL ONE OF HER FANS._

It really _was_ like a movie.

* * *

_The boy appeared almost immediately at the room. "Yes, Rima-sama?" he asked, looking nothing more than a bit surprised to see Rima dressed in, well, underclothes._

_She had a nagging feeling she should have called another slave. "When Utau Hoshina comes back from her physical education class, ask her where my clothes are. She stole them," she said, ignoring it._

_Her slave blinked. "She… stole your clothes?"_

_"Yes. My P.E. uniform and my normal one. Don't question it. And if she refuses to answer, force it out of her. Hit her if you must."_

_"Rima-sama, with all due respect, males never injure females unless it's a special case. It's an unwritten rule."_

_Yup, she _definitely_ should have chosen a different slave. "Well, this is a special case. You've been ordered," she said sharply, voice rising a little._

_He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Rima-sama, but if you want, I could –"_

_She wasn't sure what drove her to do it. All she could remember was some random, slightly embarrassing speech by a classmate to her friend (she'd been eavesdropping) about how girls were lucky, because no matter what they looked like, they could manipulate guy hormones – and therefore manipulate guys – when they tried hard enough. And for some reason, that conversation had been pushed to the front of her mind at that moment._

_So she kissed him._

_The slave stumbled back, looking shocked. "Rima… sama?" he murmured slowly, as if in a daze. She just hoped he wouldn't die of happiness before she got her clothes back._

_"Get my clothes." She tried to act as if nothing had happened, and to her credit, she succeeded. But when he left, she sunk down the the floor, groaning._

_What had she just done?_

* * *

Rima was going to die of shame.

* * *

Nagihiko was going to die of shock.

* * *

_The slave returned with her clothes, and immediately, Rima asked, "What did you do to her?"_

_"Um, nothing, Rima-sama. She just… laughed and gave them to me."_

_So that had been for nothing. She grabbed her clothes, feeling both humiliated and disgusted with herself, and said coolly, "You may leave." She paused. "But if you tell anyone anything about this, I assure you I will send the rest of my fans to rip you to pieces."_

_"Yes, Rima-sama."_

_Putting on her clothes and feeling so relieved she could burst, she left the room and went towards her next class, already formulating an excuse for not being at P.E. _

_Then, Utau brushed past her. Rima froze, and the other just smiled triumphantly at her and left, knowing she'd won._

* * *

They reappeared on the bench, in the park.

For a few seconds, they just stared at each other, unable to say anything. Then, Nagihiko broke the silence. "So… um…" he said awkwardly. _Smooth, Nagihiko, smooth._

But that was all it took. The tears Rima had been forced to hold back all that time finally spilled out, and she ran as fast as she could from the park, feeling angry at the queen, angry at Nagihiko. But mostly angry at herself.

Nagihiko could easily have caught up with her, but he didn't. He just stayed there, not sure what to think, not even sure whether he _could_ think. It was just a junior high mishap, yet for some reason, it meant so much more to the both of them.

Finally, he stood up and slowly walked back to Rima's house.

* * *

**Meh. Awkward chapter. So yeah, I guess Utau doesn't seem all that important now, but she will be later. (I wonder how long I can keep saying that until you guys don't believe me anymore, but it's true.)**

**The only problem is, I haven't planned out any of the seven remaining "challenges" for them. Also, I've only planned out one of Rima's three remaining "secrets/negative memories", and only one of Nagihiko's four "secrets/negative memories". (And the people who really know how predictable I am will know exactly what that one is.)**

**Comment on preview: I hope I don't mess it up, because I might. I made it short so in case I do mess it up, it won't be a disaster. (I said this once before, and in the end, I didn't mess it up, but still.)**

**I don't really have much to say now, so… bye, and please review.**

* * *

_Preview:_

_And as Rima did so, something rolled out of her pocket. Curiously, she picked it up, and her eyes widened. _

_Finally, she fully understood what the queen wanted them to do. And now, she felt worse than ever._

_It was a single, glittering diamond._


	8. The First Diamond

Rima's breath came out in ragged gasps and sobs as she raced home, not looking back once. She shut the door to her room, locked it, and lay onto her bed, burying her face into her pillow and starting to cry.

She had finally realized something: the queen knew her well. Nothing was more painful to her than showing a memory like that, no matter how tiny or irrelevant it was now, to the one person she acted most like the perfect little princess in front of. Because she _needed_ to act like the perfect little princess: haughty, cold, and selfish. Spoiled especially. Like nothing bad had ever happened to her, like she'd lived the perfect life. It was the façade she needed to close herself from him, and everyone else, too. Because she could trust no one.

She had thought, of course, Amu and Yaya were exceptions. They had been her best friends, always helping her in need, listening to her when she needed a shoulder to lean on. But even after all that, they were the two people who had made her wish for everyone to disappear in the first place.

And even if Yaya hadn't meant to say them, she'd said those _things_. Even if she hadn't meant to tell Rima how she felt, she obviously felt them.

Ignorance was bliss. She had thought she would rather know what other people thought than feel "blissful", but she had been wrong.

Rima had been wrong about herself.

* * *

When Nagihiko got to Rima's home (about two or three hours later, as he'd stalled as much as possible), he found that it was eerily silent. "Rima-chan?" he called uncertainly, going up to her room. He paused. _Should I? _He'd never called her that, but…

"Rima?"

* * *

"Rima-chan?"

Rima heard her name being called, but ignored it, until she heard, "Rima?"

Anger welled up inside her. Who was he to call her by her name? After… that? Telling herself fiercely that she _could not cry_ in front of him no matter what, she wiped her face and slammed the door open. Nagihiko stared at her, astonished, and all of a sudden, Rima burst into tears.

Well. So much for not crying.

Rima slammed the door in Nagihiko's face (again) and buried her face into the pillow (again), but she'd only been alone for a minute when she heard the door open.

Again.

She'd forgotten to lock it. Unable to stop crying even in a situation like this, Rima considered screaming at him to get out, but really, what was the point? He'd already seen her at her worst. Might as well let him gloat. So she pushed her face into the pillow even more, making sure she couldn't see him.

Nagihiko wanted to run from the room at that moment; he was actually horrifyingly bad with crying girls, or any situation involving tears, for that matter. So what was stopping him? He wasn't sure, but for some reason, he couldn't leave.

So he sat down next to her, not able to do anything else. The words "it's okay" lodged in his throat, unspoken no matter how hard he tried.

Rima felt the pressure on the bed, and she could tell he had sat down. Her mind spun with bafflement. Why hadn't he left? What was he still doing here? Was he going to taunt her? She prepared herself for cruel remarks, or even words of any kind, but none came. He was absolutely silent.

Carefully, she turned her head so one eye was staring directly at Nagihiko, and to her surprise, he wasn't even looking at her. In fact, he was staring pointedly at a random spot on the wall, and she couldn't see much of his face.

Rima realized he didn't want to make fun of her. He felt bad, and despite the fact he didn't do a thing to make her feel better…

He did anyway. More than he could have if he'd attempted to make her stop crying with words or gestures.

And the last of the sobs stopped. Taking a final breath, she stood up and walked out of the room, glancing at Nagihiko's face and blinking in surprise. It was a fiery red.

The information took a few seconds to process: Nagihiko Fujisaki was blushing.

She giggled slightly, closing the door behind her. And as Rima did so, something rolled out of her pocket. Curiously, she picked it up, and her eyes widened.

Finally, she fully understood what the queen wanted them to do. And now, she felt worse than ever.

It was a single, glittering diamond.

* * *

Nagihiko wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring into space, but finally, he heard the door open again. Rima tentatively peeked in and asked, "Um… are you going to come down for dinner?"

He shrugged, not looking her in the eye. "Sure." They walked downstairs together, sat down at the table, and started to eat.

Awkwardness ensued.

Finally, Nagihiko broke the silence. "Um… about that…"

Rima looked up. "Yeah?" Her voice held a slightly defensive edge to it.

"Um… you don't have to be… I mean… I don't really…"

She sighed, all defensiveness gone. "Yeah, I know what you mean." Shooting him an uneasy half-smile, she added, "We're going to have to get used to it, after all. I've got three more memories to show you and three more challenges to do. You've got four of each."

"What?"

"Eight diamonds, remember? See, this appeared in my pocket." And she rolled it across the table for him to study. He felt breathless as he held the sparkling jewel in his hand.

At his silence, she continued. "And we're going to be risking our lives for seven more of these things. You're raising your hand next, just to tell you."

Something came to Nagihiko. "But… just say we pass these tests. Do you really think she's still going to bring humankind back?"

"I don't know." She looked away, adding, "I mean, what's in it for her? If we pass these things, what does she get? Why would she make us do this?"

"Entertainment?" he offered weakly. They stayed silent, pondering.

Then, "Do you think we can be friends?"

He looked up, a bit stunned at the abruptness of the query. There was none of the expected emotion in it; no hope, or curiosity, or even interest. It was just apathy, yet at the same time, there was something more. "I don't know," he finally mumbled. "Can we?"

Another long silence. Rima shook her head, almost – _almost_ was the key word – laughing at the uneasiness of everything. "I'm going to bed."

* * *

Rima lay there, not sure what she was waiting for, but knowing _something_ was going to happen, and she was just going to have to wait and see what.

It happened. At around midnight, she heard three small knocks on her door. "Rima-chan?"

"Come in," she called. He opened the door and entered. "What do you want?"

He was soundless, dignity battling with the need for comfort. Dignity knocked the need for comfort to the ground. "Nothing," Nagihiko muttered. "Sorry for waking you."

"You're saying you came here at this hour with nothing to say?"

"Yeah."

"Liar."

Silence.

"Look, it's really nothing," he insisted. "I don't know why I came here."

"Tell me, or I'm going to ignore you for the rest of our lives. Which is probably until one of us gets killed by some more illusions," she added under her breath. Nagihiko flinched, as if he'd been struck. "What?"

"That's the problem." The need for comfort got up and beat dignity to a pulp. "I… I'm afraid one of us will get killed by one of the queen's 'tests', and the other will have to live in an empty world forever, and humankind will never be restored." Dignity struck a blow to the need for comfort, and he realized what he was saying. "That's all. I need to go now," he said hurriedly, heading for the door even though there was really nowhere to go.

"Fujisaki. Wait."

Nagihiko stopped, his hand on the doorknob.

"Are you afraid of dying early or being alone until you die?"

He didn't answer.

"You know, it _is_ our only option. Either we live alone together for the rest of our lives or we do something about this situation we're in."

"It's your fault we're in this, you know." Nagihiko wished he could take back those words as soon as he spoke them. It wouldn't do any good to place blame on her now.

Rima wanted to snap, yell at him for spilling his guts and then suddenly being so cold to her. But she didn't. He was right. "I know. I'm sorry, Nagihiko." _Nagihiko. I called him Nagihiko._

He stepped outside the room, turning around and shutting the door behind him, and for a tiny fraction of a second, she saw the look of surprise on his face in the dim moonlight.

* * *

**I AM SORRY I DID NOT UPDATE FOR FIFTY MILLION YEARS. IT WAS THE FAULT OF SCHOOL.**

**I finally planned out what the next challenge would be, which required a LOT of brainpower, considering how much homework I have – both from school and my parents. They insist that the homework amount I am supposed to be getting is not enough.**

**So technically, I'm supposed to be doing huge math packets right now, so… yeah. -_- Plus the preview is lame, because I wrote it in literally twenty seconds.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"Why do you hate me?" he asked._

_She felt herself shaking slightly, the world spinning around her. She'd never expected that. Anything but that. "I don't hate you."_

_He shook his head. "Why do you hate me?" he asked even more insistently._

_"I don't hate you!" And she ran._


	9. Jealous Hatred

When Rima woke up, there was a yellow Post-It stuck directly below her forehead, blocking her vision. She peeled it off, wincing as it came off her eyebrows, and read the light, penciled message. _I'm going for a walk. –Nagihiko_

Weird.

An hour later, he came back, panting like a dog. Rima looked up from her manga. "Some walk," she commented, noticing his sweaty, soaked-through clothes. "More like a run across town. And what are you holding?"

Nagihiko lifted a hand up, surrendering. "Okay, I went to get clothes from my own house, which happens to actually be across town. I haven't taken a shower in weeks. Am I allowed to?" He grinned. "Or are you going to let me stink up the entire place?"

Oh, right. He'd been knocked out for two weeks, and after that, he'd never asked to use her shower. "Sure," she answered dismissively. "Use the blue towel and the yellow puff. And no matter what, don't pee on the floor, in the shower, in the sink, in the cabinets, or anywhere else besides in the toilet, for that matter."

"Huh?"

"It's happened. Don't ask."

He didn't ask, just trudged up the stairs.

It was at the moment he finished showering that he finally thought, _I can't believe I'm still going along with this. I can't believe I'm not trying to find out if she still hates me._

He couldn't. Not anymore.

* * *

"Okay, what do you want? Spit it out."

Was it so hard to, as Rima put it, "spit it out"? Yes, it was. He felt himself holding his breath. "Why do you hate me?" he asked.

She felt herself shaking slightly, the world spinning around her. She'd never expected that. Anything but that. "I don't hate you."

He shook his head. "Why do you hate me?" he asked even more insistently.

"I don't hate you!" And she ran.

_I need you to tell me. I'm going to make you tell me._ That was all Nagihiko could think.

And he devised what was probably the most simple – yet the most effective – plan in the world.

It was also the hardest plan to put into action, because it went against his personality and all he'd done and said to Rima before she had made that life-changing wish, but he would do it anyway.

* * *

The next time they talked was at lunch. "Fujisaki, what do you want to eat?"

He turned to her, his expression one of complete innocence. "Why do you hate me?"

"That's not related. What do you want to eat?"

"Why do you hate me?"

"Fujisaki, shut _up_." She was surprised at her own intensity, but Nagihiko didn't bat an eye.

"Why do you hate me?"

Realization flooded her mind. "So it's the silent treatment, huh? Or the 'why do you hate me' treatment?"

"Why do you hate me?"

_Oh, so you want to play it that way? _She exhaled deeply. "Okay, I'll tell you why I hate you."

"Huh? You will?"

"Nope. _Ne-ver._" She sauntered off, smirking, calling, "I guess I'll just make you plain rice, then!" and leaving Nagihiko to yell at himself for getting tricked so easily.

* * *

She made him udon noodles, with a variety of different toppings he couldn't care less about. Normally, he would have questioned the change, but he knew it was just a test to see if he would talk. His mouth was currently confined to a single question, and he would keep it that way until she answered it.

"Fujisaki, you know what you're doing isn't going to work on me, right?" The teasing grin from when she'd tricked him was still intact.

"Why do you hate me?"

The smile disappeared. "Seriously, it's getting annoying. Talk." It wasn't so much that Rima was annoyed as that she was worried that the suffocating feeling of loneliness would appear again, and in front of Nagihiko. Then, she'd give up, and he would win.

He could not win.

"Why do you hate me?"

Anger, irrational anger, shot through Rima. She grabbed the bowl of noodles. "No meals until you start talking."

He didn't move, didn't even look at her. "Why do you hate me?"

She left.

* * *

Nagihiko was starving, but he couldn't eat. Somehow, he felt that this was the second round. He'd lost the first round, and if he ate, he would lose the second one, too. He couldn't figure out why he was thinking this.

He couldn't eat.

Rima was getting scared. The feeling was coming on again. She had to finish this. Fast. "Fujisaki, if you talk, I'll tell you why I hate you."

"Why do you hate me?"

Could she trick him? On the spot, she made up the lamest reason ever. "It's because of your hair. It's pretty and long and smooth, and I really wish I had hair like that. Can you just _talk_ to me now?"

Nagihiko decided rolling his eyes would be fine. "Why do you hate me?" he asked again, in the most skeptical voice he could muster.

_I can't allow this, _Rima thought. She entered the kitchen and reheated – or rather, boiled – his uneaten lunch in the microwave, not remembering what number she punched in, just knowing it was a large one. Then, she put on a pair of mittens usually reserved for the oven, picked up the bowl, went back to Nagihiko, and dumped the scorching contents into his lap.

He didn't move, not when the stabbing pain registered into his legs, not when tears of agony sprang to his eyes. He bit the inside of his cheek as hard as he could, and blood immediately seeped into his mouth. _I can't move. I can't move._

"You're pretty good, aren't you?" Rima drawled, hiding her mounting aggravation with difficulty. _It's not the reason I hated you before, but right now, I hate you because you won't give up._

Nagihiko's legs were already numb. That couldn't be good. "Why do you hate me?"

She turned her back on him. As soon as she walked upstairs and shut the door of her room, he leapt up and raced toward the bathroom, the shower, and, not bothering to take off his clothes, let his legs take refuge in the haven of cold water.

Rima didn't speak to him for the rest of the day.

* * *

When one was alone with the person they hated most, did midnight have a special effect on their emotions? That was what Rima would wonder later, after everything was long past. Everything seemed to happen at midnight.

In other words, midnight was when she snapped.

Rima slammed open the door of Nagihiko's temporary room. "I hate you!" she screeched. "I wish you were never born, and I could have all eight of the stupid diamonds now so everyone else could appear again, and I could forget about you for the rest of my life!"

Of course, that was one wish of hers that wasn't granted.

He looked up. "Why do you hate me?"

If she had snapped before, she shattered now. Lunging forward, she grabbed a few strands (damn, it should have been more) of his hair and yanked. Nagihiko cried out in pain as they were ripped out, and on impulse, he pushed her away.

Too hard.

Her body slammed onto the wall behind her. After a stunned silence, she started to cry.

He'd won, but he didn't feel any better about it. "Rima," he mumbled.

"What?" she choked out. Why was she even crying? It didn't hurt that much; in fact, her whole body was numb.

"Why can't you tell me?"

"Why do you want to know?" Rima steadied herself, taking deep, slow breaths, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "Why is it even any of your business?"

"I want to be friends with you. I can't do that if I don't know why you hate me." It was easy to say, but he wondered about it.

So did Rima. "I've never been kind to you in my life. I'm not exactly likeable. Why do you want to be friends, then?"

His eyes flickered to the side nervously. "Alright, that's kind of a lie. I don't really want to be friends with you. I just want to know where things stand right now."

"So you're just curious."

"Yeah."

"To the point where you'd be willing to get your legs burned."

"Um… sort of."

"So you have another reason. What is it?"

"Why are you asking me?"

She shrugged. "Because if you don't tell me, I won't tell you why I hate you."

"If I tell you, you'll tell me why you hate me?"

"Maybe not."

"Alright, it's also partly because I can't stand people hating me. I'm used to being liked by everyone. And then you came along… and things are different now." He wasn't used to being this honest. "Okay?"

There was no reply. Nagihiko squinted, but he couldn't see the expression on Rima's face in the dark. Had he said something wrong?

"Rima?"

"Don't call me Rima!" Her reaction to the name was sudden and sharp and made him jump. "I'm not _Rima_ to you. Call me by my last name!"

"What did I even say wrong?"

"My name, you freak!"

"Okay, okay! Mashiro!"

Again, there was no reply.

"Did I say something wrong again?"

"No." The voice was dull, monotonous. "Of course not. You've never said anything wrong in your life, have you? You've never done anything wrong in your life, have you?"

"Where are you going with this?" he asked tentatively, afraid she would shout at him again.

"I'm telling you why I hate you. You're perfect." If her voice had been dull before, it was robotic now. It would have freaked him out if the answer hadn't done so already; he thought his ears were malfunctioning.

"Repeat that, please?"

"You're perfect. Flawless. Impeccable. Do I need to explain anymore, or can you get a thesaurus?"

This time, he was the one that was silent, the word taking what seemed like hours to register into his head. _Perfect._

Finally, he spoke, but the only word he could get out was, "How?"

"You can play sports. You get A's in every subject. And more."

He let out a disbelieving scoff. "I can't even do chores."

"That's not your fault. You were born into a rich family. You don't have to do chores. If you did, though, you'd be perfect at that too."

"Yeah, I'm good at sports and academics. So?"

"Name one thing you're bad at. Not anything that you can't do. A thing that you can do, but are terrible at."

"Easy. Dealing with you."

"Or so you think."

"What –"

Rima interrupted him. "I know you a lot better than you think, you know," she murmured. "I've been watching you. Ever since you started hanging out with Amu." She was glad the darkness hid the glitter of pain in her eyes.

"Amu? What does Amu have to do with this?"

"Amu's your best friend because you're perfect. She used to be mine."

His heart stopped. Trying to steady himself, he said quietly, "So this isn't about me being perfect, then. It's about Amu. And it's because she's spending time with me."

"It's both." Strangely, it made her just a bit happier, pouring out all her feelings and blaming them on the person who had caused them. "I can't win Amu back from you because you're perfect. I lost to you right after I swore I would never let anyone take my best friend from me. If I were perfect…" Her voice trailed off, but the unspoken accusation hung in the air. _ If I were perfect, I wouldn't have to worry about you anymore. You wouldn't be ruining my life anymore._

"Amu likes you," Nagihiko said weakly. "I didn't take her from you. She's still your –"

Rima couldn't let him say it. "No, she isn't. She thinks I'm a spoiled brat."

"What?"

"Well, Yaya does, and Amu defended her."

"Yaya wouldn't say that."

"I know. She didn't."

And suddenly, his whole body threatened to erupt with frustration. He didn't understand, and she wasn't making this any clearer. "So what is this about? I don't get it. Why do you think I'm perfect just because Amu likes me?"

"Amu was my best friend. She wouldn't betray me for someone not perfect." Her voice had shifted back to the droning robot-voice it had been a few minutes before. "Amu's not like that. She doesn't throw people away unless there's a completely irresistible alternative. You're that alternative."

"I'm… an alternative." His voice filled with incredulity. "So that's it, then? You hate me because you think Amu likes me more than you? And you've convinced yourself that I'm perfect because you can't bear the thought of her leaving you for anything less?"

"Shut up! You _are_!"

Another silence on his part.

"Let's go."

Rima looked up. "Where?"

"To the bench. I'll show you my memories."

* * *

**Weird? Yes. OOC? Yes. Amazing and dramatic? Well… maybe. That's my evaluation of this chapter. But seriously, if you think this even qualifies as an argument, wait until you read the next chapter. I swear it's going to break an official Shugo Chara Fanfiction Record in the category "OOC Nagihiko". Or even "OOC". But you'll have to deal with it, because you don't know my password (hopefully); therefore, I'm the only one who can change anything about the story (hopefully).**

**So, to anyone that still doesn't get it, Rima hates Nagi because she thinks he stole Amu from her, and convinced herself it was because he's perfect, because it would be more painful to think Amu would leave her for somebody _not_ perfect. Which everyone who has read/watched SC knows is NOT TRUE, and Amu actually likes both of them the same, but Rima is used to being the _best_ friend, not the normal friend. I kind of explained that in the chapter, though, so you should get it.**

**How was that? It was a pretty long chapter, considering my usual chapters are maybe half this length. But I needed the room, because I wanted to cut it off here, and nowhere else. Yes, to torture you. XD Anyway, I've planned out Nagi's first challenge and memory, and I'm sorry to say they're NOWHERE as dramatic as Rima's (especially the challenge, which I'm going to literally give away in the preview. And the result of the challenge is absolutely TERRIBLE and anti-dramatic… but it was the best I could come up with). But hopefully it's okay enough to have a verbal fight over. (Especially a verbal fight to the extent I'm planning to write.)**

**I don't know why I included the shower scene. I guess it was just because I'd realized Nagi hadn't taken a shower in a long, long time.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_When Nagihiko opened his eyes, they were in the exact same park, in front of the exact same bench as before. Except he was alone. He stood up, expecting to be stabbed or something._

_But nothing like that happened. Instead, he heard two voices, speaking in unison. "Hey, Fujisaki –" And both voices were cut off abruptly._

_The two Rimas were staring in shock at each other. And then, he heard the queen's voice in his head. _Pick out the real one.


	10. Double Trouble

They arrived at the bench in silence, but Nagihiko's head was far from silent. And as Rima sat down, he hesitated for just a second.

What if he died here? All of a sudden, there were so many things he wanted to do and say, places he wanted to see. _It'll be fine,_ he told himself. _Probably just a mind game._ But he was still nervous as he sat down and raised his hand.

The three disappeared.

When Nagihiko opened his eyes, he was in the exact same park, in front of the exact same bench as before. Except he was alone. He stood up, expecting to be stabbed or something.

But nothing like that happened. Instead, he heard two voices, speaking in unison. "Hey, Fujisaki –" And both voices were cut off abruptly.

The two Rimas were staring in shock at each other. And then, he heard the queen's voice in his head. _Pick out the real one._

"What?" he asked, shocked. "How am I –"

_Speak in your mind._

_How am I supposed to pick out the real one? They look exactly the same!_

_It's not how they look._

_Wait –_

She had stopped communicating with him, he could tell, but he'd gotten the hint. _So I'm supposed to test them, huh? Yeah, that's probably it._ He turned to the two girls (officially Rima 1 and Rima 2), who were fighting.

"Okay, 'queen'. Give it up. I'm the real Rima."

"Um, seriously? I never thought you could sink this low, pretending to be me. What the heck are you playing at?"

"What are _you_ playing at?"

"Hey!" Nagihiko shouted. "Um… Rima 1 and Rima 2!"

"Can you come up with a less derogatory name?" they said in unison.

_This is going to be harder than I thought._Nagihiko glanced around the park. "Okay, I'm going to test you two. One of you, go to that tree over there." He pointed to a tree on his left. "And the other one go to the tree over there." He pointed to a tree on his right.

Both Rimas headed towards the tree on his left. Then, at the exact same time, they turned around and headed for the tree on his right – then immediately turned back again in unison, causing them to start arguing again.

_Definitely harder than I thought. _He had to figure out who was who somehow, but… how? Not for the first time, he wondered about the queen's motives. Was everything for entertainment, so she could watch him die trying to find the real Rima?

It didn't really matter now, though. He walked over to the two. Touching Rima 1 lightly, he pointed to the left tree and said, "You go to the tree over there." Then, he turned to Rima 2. "You go to the other one."

They did in silence.

Nagihiko stepped back. "Now run to the other tree as fast as you can."

The results made his eyes widen; Rima 1 was faster than Rima 2. If only he knew Rima's exact sprinting speed. He'd seen her in P.E., and knew that Rima was extremely slow, which meant that Rima 2 might be the real one. But then again, Rima 2 might be the queen, and she might be tricking him into thinking she was the real one by running slowly…

_I have to think of a second test, _he told himself furiously. _I could be being timed right now and not even know it. _He walked over to the first Rima. "What's your favorite color?"

"Seriously? You don't even know my favorite color, Fujisaki, so you'd have no way to check. And of course the queen will hear."

"Whisper it."

"I don't have one," she muttered quietly.

The second Rima gave the exact same answer, word-for-word. "Seriously? You don't even know my favorite color, Fujisaki, so you'd have no way to check. And of course the queen will hear." And when Nagihiko told her to whisper, she told him she didn't have one.

_I can't give up. I have to think of a third test._He tested the second Rima first this time.

The same thing occurred, for that test, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth, and the seventh…

By the time the fourteenth test had failed, Nagihiko was sitting slumped on the ground in front of the bench, and the Rimas were arguing… _again_. But he was thinking too hard to try to stop them. _They act exactly the same. Testing them any more on their personalities is just wasting time. _He'd also tested them on what had happened after they'd met, and that hadn't worked out either – though he hadn't reverted to the science room incident yet. He decided he would.

But that didn't work out either. "So you've resorted to that?" both Rimas said. "Fine, then. I told you I hated you. Now can we forget about it? We talked enough about it before the challenge." And despite their calm words, there was a glimmer of nervousness – and perhaps guilt – in both sets of eyes. _Even their expressions are exactly the same… fifteenth test, failed._

Since he knew he couldn't test them on their personalities or their history, his mind wandered to other things. Slightly embarrassed, Nagihiko remembered when he'd seen Rima's memory – and therefore seen her nearly naked in the change rooms. But she hadn't had any visible birthmarks of any sort, and the queen didn't seem to be the type to add an accidental birthmark. Yet it was worth a try. "Take off everything except your underclothes," he groaned miserably.

Of course there was a protest. "No!"

"Then we'll never get out of here, whichever one of you is the real Rima."

They clenched their fists, glared at the other, and reluctantly obeyed.

_Okay. Forget that she's pretty much naked. Forget that you're probably blushing like crazy. And _especially_ forget about hormones. Just judge her like you'd judge an inanimate object._He walked over, and after about two agonizing minutes of two completely red-faced Rimas and one completely red-faced Nagihiko, he found something. Unfortunately, it was on both Rimas. Staring at them, he said, "Hey, I never saw that scar in the memory."

"You were actually _looking_?" Of course, that came from both of them.

"No, seriously. I never saw that. Where'd you get it?"

"None of your business" was uttered in unison.

He looked at it more closely. It was a single red slash, extending from their left elbows to about midway between their wrists and their elbows. But either way, they both had it, so it probably didn't matter. "Okay, you can put your clothes on now."

They dressed as quickly as they could, which was at the exact same speed. He was just beginning to despair when he remembered his first discovery. _Don't forget that the first Rima was faster than the second. That has to count for something. _Or it was just the queen tricking him, again…

So it all came down to one thing now. _I'm going to have to guess. It's the only way._

He technically had a fifty-fifty chance if he did…

But why did it feel more like a hundred to zero?

* * *

The queen sighed. "Do you think he is honestly going to guess? He will certainly fail. This is not a challenge of luck. Shall I give him another clue?"

"Your Highness, didn't you say before that you wanted them to pass these challenges, so you didn't have to decide what happened to them? That was why you didn't make them as hard as they could be, am I not correct, Highness? So perhaps you should. It might be for the best. Besides, this challenge is much harder than the one with the vines."

"Yes, that is true. But frankly, the Fujisaki child is more competent." She allowed herself a smile. "I cannot believe he told her to take her clothes off, though."

"Yes, Your Highness. But, Your Highness, are you sure what you are doing now isn't too much work? It would be so much simpler if you were actually pretending to be one of them, but instead you are…"

"It is not too much work," she interrupted. "You underestimate me. However, I guess I shall give him another clue before the Mashiro girl begins experiencing side effects from what I am doing to her right now." _I just hope he understands soon. I do not have endless energy to spare, and neither does Mashiro Rima._

* * *

_Magic is more illusionary than physical._

_Huh? _Nagihiko's eyes widened. It was the queen. _Can you give me a clue? Please? Just one little clue?_

_That is your clue. Magic is more illusionary than physical. Therefore, you will need to use your head a little more, rather than your eyes and ears. I overestimated you._

He couldn't care less about insults at this point. _What? What are you talking about? Please, Your Majesty, explain a little further._

_It means, as you humans so eloquently put it, to think outside the box. _He could sense annoyance in her thoughts. _This is not impossible, Fujisaki Nagihiko. Think. You were going in the right direction before. Why was the second one slower than the first? Honestly, when do humans run more slowly than usual?_And she was gone.

Again. The boy gritted his teeth. For once, he could feel Rima's frustration. Why couldn't she give him a simple hint? Why did it have to make him even more confused?

_Think. Think._ That was the only thing he could do right now, now that she'd intervened just as he was about to guess which one it was. He closed his eyes. _Magic is more illusionary than physical… more illusionary than physical… more illusionary… illusionary… illusionary…_

Maybe one of them was an illusion? It wasn't all that ridiculous, after all. But when vines had been killing Rima, she hadn't been able to escape before she figured out they were illusions, so he'd probably have to know which one was an illusion before she disappeared. What was the queen trying to tell him?

The two girls had ceased fighting a long time ago, and were now ignoring each other. At the same time, they called, "Fujisaki, can you just hurry up and figure out I'm the real Rima?"

He was slowly getting a headache. "Wait," he muttered. _Think outside the box. Magic is illusionary. When do humans run more slowly than usual? _The box was endless. Besides, they acted almost exactly the same, except…

_Humans run more slowly than usual… when they're tired. _Well, it was the most obvious answer.

But he still didn't get it. He knew the answer was right in front of him. He knew it was staring him in the face, but he couldn't understand.

_Start from the beginning,_ he thought. _Humans run more slowly when they're tired… which means Rima 2 must have been a bit more tired than Rima 1 when she ran. But how is that possible? They did exactly the same thing. It's impossible that one ran more than the other…_

_Unless…_

It came to him in a flash. The weirdest, most bizarre idea ever. It couldn't possibly be true. He was delusional.

But he believed it, and his mind was instantly swarming with thoughts. _That's not possible_was instantly drowned out by interpretations, explanations of why and how and what. And he couldn't fully understand any of them.

It probably wasn't even true, but it was the only thing he could resort to now. He'd tried everything else. If he failed the challenge, well, it was the queen's fault for misleading him.

Because he _was _thinking outside the box. There was a box. The "box" was that one of them had to be Rima, and the other one had to be the queen. The answer was outside the box.

"Both of you are the real Rima."

* * *

**I actually got the running idea because we had to run like TWO MILLION miles nonstop (at least that's what it felt like) in P.E., and I nearly DIED. (I am the least athletic person in the U.S.A.) Seriously, a note to all P.E. teachers: JUST BECAUSE I RUN A QUARTER OF A MILE IN THREE MINUTES (yes, I'm that slow) DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN I WILL RUN A MILE IN TWELVE MINUTES. IN FACT, I WILL PROBABLY RUN A MILE IN FIFTEEN MINUTES, BECAUSE I LACK BOTH SPEED AND STAMINA. There.**

**If you figure out Nagihiko's thought process, then you are officially a genius. If you figure out how exactly the queen managed to make both of them the real Rima at the same time (because Nagihiko is right), you are officially Albert Einstein's descendant. (After all, people lower in the family tree are smarter… I think. Maybe. I just made that up, but whatever. Yes, you will officially be declared "smarter than Einstein" by me.) Because your only clue is technically not a clue: It required lots of energy from both the queen and Rima. If you figured it out, you will be mentioned in the author's note of the next chapter as (insert penname here) Einstein.**

**Speaking of the next chapter… I know I was blabbing on and on about how they were supposed to have a big fight and all that stuff. Well, it turns out I miscalculated. They're actually supposed to have the big fight in the NEXT chapter. Or the chapter after that. I'm 100% sure it's the next chapter, but when I was writing the chapter before this one, I was 100% sure they were going to have the fight in this chapter, so… yeah. (I meant to stuff the challenge, the memory, and the fight all in this chapter, but I ended up dramatically stretching out the challenge, so I'm planning now to put the explanation of the challenge, the memory, and the fight in the next chapter. I may end up miscalculating again, though, by stretching out the memory too. -_-)**

**The preview is disappointing purely because I didn't want to give anything away, so don't complain.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_They were in the same paper-white, empty place as before, and Nagihiko was already fading. He turned to Rima. "Hey, where do I go while you watch my memory?"_

_"You relive it. The memory, I mean."_

_His eyes widened. "What? I relive it? Why didn't you –" But he had already disappeared._


	11. Hateful Jealousy

**I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN SO LONG. THE QUALITY OF THIS CHAPTER DOES NOT IN ANY WAY MAKE UP FOR THE MONTH-LONG WAIT, AND I'M SORRY FOR THAT TOO. AND I TOTALLY FAILED AT EXPLAINING THE "BOTH OF YOU ARE RIMA" THING, SO IF YOU DON'T GET IT GIVE ME A REVIEW AND I'LL HOPEFULLY EXPLAIN IT BETTER IN A PM.**

**Nagi's memory is less detailed than Rima's, because I got lazy. So basically what I did was first explain it in detail, then get bored and decide to just cut it off with a quick summary of the rest of memory and end with "he relived it".**

**Told you it sucked. Hopefully I cut it off in a dramatic and amazing enough fashion, though, that you'll forgive me for it. (LOL right. Like that's gonna happen.)**

**And Nagihiko is OOC. I absolutely can't deny it. Well, at least the chapter's much longer than usual… you can't deny that either.**

* * *

The effect was enormous. Both girls protested so loudly he nearly went deaf. "I'm the real Rima, you idiot!"

And after they'd finally accepted that his answer was unchangeable, "Explain."

"Okay, um… the thing is, I noticed that one of you ran slower than the other one when I asked you to run from one tree to the other, and the queen gave me a bunch of hints, so… I think what the queen did there is first making Rima run, then erasing Rima's memory, then making her run back, then doing this illusion… thing… making both of you, which is actually one of you, believe that you were seeing the other Rima run while you ran, and making me believe that both were running at the same time, so it would seem like there were two Rimas when all she did was take the two trips and mash them together, and… um… wait, no…" He groaned audibly, burying his face in his hands. "I'm getting confused."

Fortunately, Rima (or the Rimas) proved much smarter than he expected. "You mean we're under an illusion? And if there were no illusion, then it would look as if I ran to one tree, than ran back? And the queen took those two 'trips' and made it so it looked like they happened at the same time? And we're actually one person? And when we're speaking in unison right now, at this very moment, it's actually that I – or the real Rima, whatever – is actually speaking, then being transported a few inches to the side, then having her memory wiped, so then she could speak again? And then the illusion takes care of the rest, making it seem that both Rimas were speaking at the same time, when it's really just one Rima speaking and then speaking again because her memory was wiped… or…" _I can't believe this, _she thought, turning to look at the "other Rima". _So this person next to me… is me, just speaking and thinking the exact same things again? I wonder which one of us is the "second" Rima, and which is the "first"? No, wait, I can't think like that. We're both the same person. But… that's just so… _All of a sudden, she felt incredibly dizzy.

Nagihiko didn't seem to notice. "Yeah. Either it's an illusion, or she manipulated time. Am I right, Your Majesty?" he asked the queen.

_Yes. You are right that I cast an illusion over you two, but not that I manipulated time itself. Time is universal. Nothing can change it._

"Can you give Rima all her memories back, to prove it?"

_She will go insane._

"Really?"

_I do not truly know. There are limits to my powers. However, it is a possibility, and quite probable at that. Speak in your mind. It is easier for me._

"What are you two even talking about? It's weird seeing you talk to thin air, you know. And it's really bugging me listening to myself say the exact same thing next to me." The more accurate term would be "freaking me out". Not that she was ever going to tell him that – partly because of her pride, and partly because she thought she might throw up if she did. Right now, she couldn't even look at the other Rima – no, the other Rima was her. _Her_, with her memories wiped. And her thoughts raced again. _So am I the first Rima or the second? No, I'm Rima! I'm both! That person next to me is me, just either what I do later or what I did earlier… no, it's neither later nor earlier… I'm neither later nor earlier… because I'm both… I'm both me and the person next to me… no, the person next to me is me… and I'm either going to be that person later, or I've already been that person and gone through this and thought all this… no! That person is me!_

She (or they) dropped to her (or their) knees, trembling. Nagihiko ran to them. "Hey, are you guys okay?"

"Don't call me 'you guys'! I'm Rima!" they shrieked at the same time.

Now what? _Your Majesty, please, can you undo the illusion?_

_My theory was right, it seems. The illusion, combined with the knowledge of it, is taking its toll on the girl. As you wish. _The two girls were immediately replaced with one.

"Rima-chan, it's okay now."

She looked up. "Oh…" Then, she winced. "I'm tired…"

"It's probably just a –" And everything went black, but this time, instead of fear being his last emotion, Nagihiko thought, _I'm so glad we passed._

Until he remembered what was next.

* * *

Things happened much more quickly than last time. They were in the same paper-white, empty place as before, and Nagihiko was already fading. He turned to Rima. "Hey, where do I go while you watch my memory?"

"You relive it. The memory, I mean."

His eyes widened. "What? I relive it? Why didn't you –" But he had already disappeared.

A screen appeared in front of Rima, displaying a large, furnished room with a huge, curtained window and a bed. As she watched, a young purple-haired boy walked in, one that she knew must be Nagihiko… but no, it wasn't a boy. It was a pretty girl – the female uniform with a skirt and blouse confirmed it – with the hair tied up in a long ponytail.

_Nagihiko has a twin?_

But she was wrong. As the person turned to face the direction of the screen, yanking off his ponytail in the process, she realized that it _was_Nagihiko.

_Wait, is he gay? Is that all? Some secret._

But again, she was wrong.

* * *

Somewhere outside the strange oblivion they were in, the queen smiled.

She couldn't predict the future, but she could guess, and from what she guessed, it would be entertaining.

* * *

Nagihiko felt utterly miserable. As it turned out, Rima had been right. He didn't have control of any part of his body, and it was terrifying. He could only imagine how Rima had felt being forced to relive her memory; at least he'd gotten some sort of warning before being cast into his.

"Nagihiko?" He felt his head turn. As expected, it was his mom. "Your friend is here."

_Your friend is here. _But Nagihiko knew that after a few hours, of course, she would be an enemy.

And he spoke, and detested himself as he felt his lips curl up into a smile. "Yeah."

* * *

_"Nagihiko? Your friend is here."_

_Nagihiko smiled. "Yeah."_

_His mother sighed. "I'm having second thoughts about this. No, I'm having hundredth thoughts. You're sure this girl is trustworthy? I know I've nagged you quite a lot about this, but I don't want the truth about your 'sister' to bring us down. I'm quite respected, and if word gets out –"_

_ "Mother, you know that even if word gets out, we'll still be rich. Just less, but we're doing fine right now. We make almost three times what others do yearly."_

_"How did you turn out to be so shallow? It's not only about that. We'll be looked down upon –"_

_"It'll be fine –"_

_"You don't seem to understand what this place is like. Even if I don't get fired, you will, and both of us will be scorned to death. You're in high school, Nagihiko. You won't survive. And I won't be able to step outside my house without getting looks and whispers. At worst, they'll chase us out of this place, and we'll be remembered forever… and not in a good way, either. Are you still going to tell her?"_

_He swallowed thickly, thinking about it. How could he have forgotten? He would never dance onstage again. He would never be famous – well, moderately famous, and only in their city, but it was the same thing to him – again. And his mother might lose her prominent position in the dance industry. This wasn't worth it. He couldn't give all this up just so he could finally let someone know the secret that had been trapped inside him for his entire life, waiting to escape his lips._

_But it was _her_. She could be trusted._

_"Yes."_

_She smiled wryly. "Guess you'll never change your mind, then. I should go prepare for the worst."_

_"Why are you so confident she'll tell?"_

_"Because that's how people are." And she left._

_Nagihiko headed towards the living room, where he knew Saaya – the girl he would entrust with his secret – would be._

She won't tell.

* * *

Their conversation was too unclear. She didn't get a word of it. The truth about Nagihiko's sister? And who was this girl they were referring to? Was this _meant _to be vague?

All she knew was that she was getting a strange horror-movie feeling, like the kind that usually happened when watching the heroine make her way down into the basement (cliché, but true). The kind that made her and the rest of the world want to scream, "Don't do it!" And yet she didn't even really understand what was going on.

_I'll understand later,_ Rima told herself. On the screen, Nagihiko made his way down to a huge living room, with chandeliers (plural) and beautifully arranged furniture and vases and _statues_, of all things, that just took her breath away. And the person in the middle of the room made her gasp out loud.

Sitting on the ground was a girl at least five times as pretty as Rima, and most likely ten times as charming when needed (Rima could tell that much from the flutter of her eyelashes alone). With her delicate rose-red curls, green almond-shaped eyes, impossibly tiny mouth, and pale skin, Rima was surprised she hadn't become a world-famous model yet. The room didn't compare. But Nagihiko didn't bat an eye as he walked toward her, and Rima had the stupidest thought ever: _So that's why he didn't immediately start fawning over me like almost every other guy in the world when he first met me. _Not only was he perfect, he was also immune to beauty. She'd have to add that to her argument.

"Hey, Nadeshiko-chan." Saaya looked up, and the smile she gave him actually made Rima dizzy for a second. If this girl wasn't a goddess (or related to one), she'd gotten plastic surgery – not that it was likely any plastic surgeon in the world could do such a good job on any face.

Nagihiko finally reacted. Giving a start like he'd just noticed her, he blinked a couple of times and replied quietly, "Oh, hey, Saaya."

And the horror-movie feeling intensified.

_He's so not gay._

* * *

_"Oh, hey, Saaya."_

_Saaya frowned. "Your voice is different. Like a boy's, almost. What's wrong?"_

_He decided to get it over with. "I'm actually a boy." And before she could even say anything, he launched into his well-rehearsed speech. "I like to dance. But since this city is so sexist – no offense to it, but it's true – I decided… no, my mom decided I was going to have to dress as a girl to become a dancer, otherwise I would never be truly accepted as one, and besides, the type of dance I like to do most, which is basically the traditional Japanese one, doesn't even have guy dancers. But I wasn't used to acting like a girl, and my mom knew people would get suspicious, I decided to act like one twenty-four-seven. So I've been pretending to be female my whole life. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I was afraid you'd tell someone. Can you not? Please?"_

* * *

_I get it now. Why he tried to show me this as proof he wasn't perfect._And Rima knew, suddenly, what was going to happen next. This Saaya girl would tell. They would be chased out of the place, like his mom had said. They'd have to start anew, and… she knew the rest. He'd meet Amu, and try to be friends with her, only to become despised by Rima for reasons he couldn't even understand.

And for the first time in her life, Rima Mashiro felt sorry for Nagihiko Fujisaki.

* * *

He remembered everything perfectly, and everything was going just the way he remembered it: Saaya standing up and running out of the house, him chasing after her, him shouting, "Wait!"

He remembered her telling him he was a liar, repeating one of his talks with her word-for-word. "Saaya, we're friends, aren't we?" she had mimicked. "You can tell me everything. Don't you trust me? I trust you."

He had floundered around for an excuse, before realizing that she was right, and no excuse would make up for it. But admitting it had made her angrier, and she'd texted, called, and emailed everyone she could about the news, and posted it on every webpage she had. Within hours, the entire city had known. And they'd been chased out, like his mom had predicted.

It had all been his fault.

If only he didn't have to relive it. If only he could just close his eyes and shut out what he remembered all too well.

He relived it.

* * *

They appeared back at the bench, blinking as their eyes adjusted to the dim moonlight, their ears to the silence. Nagihiko quickly broke it. "See?"

"See what?"

"I'm not –"

"Yes, you are."

His eyes widened in disbelief. "_What_?"

"Just because you had to pretend to be 'Nadeshiko' or whatever doesn't mean you aren't perfect. It wasn't your fault. It was out of your control." Rima knew she was crossing the line. Rima knew she was testing his supposedly unlimited patience. But she didn't even care anymore. If he wasn't perfect… then Amu had left her for someone normal. Someone that wasn't any better than her. Amu had left her for someone less than perfect. Was that proof that Rima didn't mean anything to her? That was all she could focus on right now. That was all she cared about.

How could she ever have felt sorry for him? She didn't care anymore.

Neither did Nagihiko. "_Mashiro_!" he shouted. _I can't put up with this anymore._

She refused to look at him. _If he's not perfect… he must have been tricking Amu. That's it. He was tricking Amu into thinking he was perfect. That's why he replaced me as her best friend. _Yes, that was the answer. Rima was happy again.

"Because of me, my mother and I had to leave and start over! How does that still make me perfect? I made a mistake! Perfect people don't make mistakes!"

_Yes, Nagihiko, _she thought._ I know you aren't perfect now. But how imperfect are you, then? If I provoke you, how badly will you react? Let's test it._

Maybe she'd tell Amu after this was over. Maybe Amu would believe her. Maybe Amu wouldn't be friends with him anymore. Maybe she'd get Amu back. "It wasn't a mistake. It was the other girl's fault. The pretty one."

"It was a mistake to trust her!"

"Well, if she hadn't told –"

Nagihiko was gritting his teeth so hard they hurt. "Mashiro, _listen to me_," he hissed.

Rima cocked her head to the side. "Uh-huh?" she asked flippantly, smothering a yawn. "Hurry up. It's, like, midnight now. I need my beauty sleep." She snickered lightly, twirling a lock of her hair with her finger.

His eyes narrowed in fury. "I hate it when you do that, you know? Like you're the queen of the world, and nobody else matters. You're not. _She_is. The one who's making us collect the diamonds. You try to act like you're in control of everything –"

"Look who's talking. You can't even make yourself calm down."

"You can't even make Amu be your friend!"

Rima stopped short, her mouth open with a partially-formed retort.

He'd gone too far. He could feel it. Her eyes were wide, and in that wildly bizarre moment, he felt… well… _guilty_.

She looked down and began talking, her voice in that strange monotone it had been before. "You can't live in my house. I don't care about the diamonds anymore. I don't want to see your face ever again. I don't want to even think about you."

"Rim – Mashiro-san –"

And then she ran, faster than she'd ever run before, longer than she'd ever run before. She tilted her head up so the tears wouldn't spill out, watching the blurry moon rise in the sky and feeling the lump rise in her throat.

* * *

**It… was okay, right? For something that hasn't been updated in a month? _Right_? I'm feeling kind of insecure about this chapter, because I always get insecure after writing a chapter longer than 2000 words (not counting one-shots, because I don't feel insecure about Fanfiction Torture, which I'm going to self-advertise right now: you should REALLY read it because it's basically all my rants about terrible fanfiction smashed into a story plus some minimal Rimahiko and I'm really proud of it because almost everyone who has reviewed has stroked my ego more than I deserve, and anyway I'm done self-advertising), so please please please please leave a review for this chapter-ish thingy that I have just published PLEASE**

**Don't worry, they _will_ make up (this is Rimahiko, isn't it?) but in a very weird, awkward, and humiliating (for Nagi, at least) way. And yes, I used Saaya. Poor her. I _am_ sort of a hypocrite, I admit it (I've ranted lots of times how Saaya isn't a bad person, and people shouldn't use her as the bully girl or whatever), but Saaya in my story isn't evil. She just seems like that, but she's got reasons. Hey, I probably wouldn't keep quiet about a friend who had betrayed me, either. (And yes, that counts as betrayal because Nagihiko purposely made Saaya trust her with that "speech" I included.)**

**Spoilers secretly contained in that paragraph that you probably didn't notice (the spoiler, not the paragraph) because I am so subtle: Saaya will meet Nagi again once humankind reappears.**

**Spoilers secretly contained in that spoiler that you probably didn't notice (the spoiler in this paragraph, not the spoiler in the paragraph before) because I am so subtle: The story will not end once humankind reappears. Not even close.**

**Very obvious third spoiler that I gave you: Humankind will reappear.**

**That was for the benefit of the people who didn't notice, and to make up for the month-long wait, because I still think the chapter didn't make up for it.**

**Ugh. Can't think of anything else to talk about. Brain is slowly rotting away. Must save brain cells and ability to form complete sentences for preview.**

**OMG I ONLY HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES LEFT ON THE COMPUTER. MUST HURRY UP AND WRITE PREVIEW. BUT I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING INTERESTING TO WRITE SOB. OH WELL I'LL WING IT. (This is the excuse for the terrible preview.)**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_The opportunity was too good to pass up, even though it _had_ been her fault in the first place. "Alright, pretend to be Nadeshiko for a whole day."_

_His eyes widened. "What?"_

_She grinned. _Oh, this is going to be fun. _"You heard me."_


	12. Nadeshiko

That night, Rima dreamed that she was alone. She had been on the verge of death when she woke up.

Now, she couldn't move, couldn't do anything. As she lay on the bed, her brain was the only thing in motion, repeatedly firing a single thought off into space: _So stupid. So stupid. I'm so stupid._

What had she been _thinking_? Her words began echoing in her mind._"You can't live in my house. I don't care about the diamonds anymore. I don't want to see your face ever again. I don't want to even think about you."_

Right.

Like she hadn't just been totally jealous of the guy. Like she hadn't been in denial all along. Like he'd lied or anything. Like he hadn't just told the hard, cold truth.

How could she have been so blind?

Everything seemed to be her fault now, and in the end, it seemed that only she would suffer. If they didn't retrieve the diamonds at some point or another, how would she live? Two weeks without company, and she'd nearly gone insane. And she'd basically driven Nagihiko out of her life…

He would never speak to her again.

Ever.

And she'd die.

She was going to have to apologize to Nagihiko. But at this very thought, she sat up, suddenly wanting to bang her head on a doorknob.

_This sucks._

Rima Mashiro decided that she officially hated her life.

Pride was a funny thing.

But where the heck was he, anyway? Well, she knew he was probably at his own house right now, but where was his house? All she knew was that it was on the "other side of town", and that was so vague that it might as well have been "somewhere in Japan".

Surrendering, she took out the piece of paper, which hadn't been used for a long time. "Where is Fujisaki's house?"

**The Fujisaki family is quite large, and spread out all over the world. Which Fujisaki house are you referring to?**

Rima swore that she was going to rip the thing into pieces. "The house of the guy whose name starts with an 'N'!"

**It is a Fujisaki tradition to give all their children names beginning with "N".**

"Nagihiko! Nagihiko Fujisaki! There, I said his name! Are you happy?"

**It is located on the other side of town.**

"No! I want to know the exact address!"

**I do not know.**

"Yes, you do! You're the freaking queen of the universe!"

**I do know, but I do not care to tell you. The blame rests entirely on your shoulders. You are the reason he has not entered your house since the night before. You should find out yourself.**

"So you're trying to make me learn my lesson or something? I'm going to apologize to him, so I've already learned it! Just tell me!"

And the paper vanished. She regretted not having ripped it up before, like she'd wanted to. _Now_, she thought as she stormed down the stairs and slammed the front door open, _I'm going to have to look all over –_

"Ow."

That had _not_ come from her.

She watched disbelievingly as the boy rubbed his head, which had been hit by the door, wincing. _Nagihiko was… sleeping on my porch?_

As if he had heard her thoughts, Nagihiko gave a jolt. _Okay, _she thought, thinking he was going to leave, _it's now or never. _"I'm –"

"I'm sorry."

That hadn't come from her either.

Seeing her incredulous stare, Nagihiko flushed a bright red that, Rima noted interestedly, made him look a _lot_ less perfect than she had once thought he was. "Um – I mean, I don't – I'm sorry for yesterday," he finally stammered. "It… it was my fault and" – and suddenly he was talking nonstop – "I wasn't supposed to say that – no, I mean it wasn't what I thought at all and I was just mad but it wasn't that you made me mad, I had no right to be mad and you did absolutely nothing wrong and everything was because of me and –" He broke off suddenly, took a deep breath, and blurted out, "Can you forgive me?"

He seemed to take her stunned silence as a rejection. "I'll do anything!" he added hurriedly.

If she didn't laugh soon, she knew she was either going to explode or wet herself. So Rima burst out snorting in a very unladylike manner, and Nagihiko gaped at her before closing his eyes, groaning, and turning even redder than he had before. "I just made a total fool of myself, didn't I?"

Rima smirked. "You did. What was that about doing anything for you to forgive me? I've already got a couple ideas. Too bad I only get to choose one."

Nagihiko Fujisaki felt dead.

She pretended to think, although she already had the perfect idea in mind. The opportunity was too good to pass up, even though it _had _been her fault in the first place. "Alright, pretend to be Nadeshiko for a whole day."

His eyes widened. "What?"

She grinned. _Oh, this is going to be fun._ "You heard me."

"But I haven't acted like a girl in years!"

"This isn't something you can easily forget, Fujisaki. Besides, that memory you had to relive ought to have reminded you."

"Rima, please, choose something else –"

"Hey, I'm just curious to see what 'Nadeshiko' is like. Go. My mom has some old dresses and skirts that might fit you," she replied, leaving him no options.

Nagihiko Fujisaki was dead.

* * *

Nadeshiko was… pretty, which seemed impossible considering that she looked exactly like Nagihiko with a ponytail and a skirt. She reminded Rima of her namesake, the flower. _Not she. He. He's a boy._

She knew he was a boy, yet was now having a hard time believing it.

"Hi! You're Rima-chan, right? Nagihiko's told me a lot about you!"

And how could any male make his voice that high-pitched?

"Fujisaki. You're scaring me."

"Huh?" she – _he_ asked, voice still high and girly and at the same time_normal_. "Oh, right, I suppose 'blank has told me a lot about you' is quite cliché. Sorry. Nice meeting you, anyway! And call me Nadeshiko."

_Well,_ Rima thought, _if he's still going along with it, then I might as well stop thinking of him as a boy for now. It was my idea, after all. _"Okay, then, Nadeshiko. Since you're replacing Nagihiko – _Fujisaki_, I mean– for now, we won't go to the bench to get any diamonds today. I'd like a break from all those challenges and memories and the like. We have six left and all the time in the world to get them."

"Yeah, let's have fun! I'll teach you to dance."

"Never."

"Please?"

"No. I'm going to go get some sleep. I didn't get any last night. You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't get in my way." Who cared if he decided to drop the girl performance while she slept? She was moderately freaked out by the act she herself had demanded, but more importantly, she was tired. The nightmare had ruined things for her.

Nadeshiko smiled.

_Even his smile looks girly._

* * *

When Rima finally woke up and went downstairs, Nagihiko (still in Nadeshiko-mode, to her surprise) was carrying a full laundry basket to the garage, where the washing machine was kept.

Her eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing laundry."

Some of her anger at the queen slipped away as Rima thanked her for letting her wake up at this moment. "You don't know how to do laundry! You're going to flood the house!"

"How do you know that I don't know how to do laundry?"

Rima twitched, and turned slightly pink as she realized the basket was full of her underwear. _Nagihiko, you little… _"You probably don't know, I mean, because you and Nagihiko – no, Fujisaki – are related, and live in the same house, and Nagihiko – ugh, _Fujisaki_ – doesn't know how to. So put the stupid laundry basket down," she said quickly.

"It's because your underwear is in there, right? Don't worry, I didn't look."

The blonde couldn't help laughing, though her face was still red as she responded, embarrassed and amused against her will, "You must have looked if you know my underwear's in there."

"I mean, I didn't look _carefully_. Like, I don't know if it's soiled or –"

"You are disgusting."

"Hey, we're both girls, right? I understand."

_You complete idiot. When you're back in Nagihiko-mode I'm so going to tell you off for using "Nadeshiko" to act like a pervert. _"Whatever." Trying to change the subject, she suddenly thought of something. "Hey, does Amu know about your – I mean, does Amu know who you are? Or did your brother never tell her about you?"

Nagihiko got the real message. _Does Amu know about your past? That you used to be famous, and used to dress as a girl called Nadeshiko? _"No," he said softly. "Nagihiko wanted to tell her about me, but… he thought… Amu wouldn't like him anymore if she found out he looked so much like a girl, even if that girl _was_ his twin. I'd like to meet her, though. Nagihiko says she's a nice girl."

_So he's… afraid that Amu will act like Saaya did? _Rima thought. "Hey, Nadeshiko?"

"Yeah?"

"Nagi – _Fujisaki_ is right. Amu's trustworthy. You can tell her almost… almost anything." She had been trying to comfort him, but her own words caused her to flinch. _She couldn't be trusted before. She told Yaya, and it was partly Yaya's fault we're in this mess._

"Okay. And, Rima-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"When did you start calling my brother 'Nagihiko'?"

Rima glared. "I've never called your brother by his first name, and I never will."

There was laughter, bright, cheerful laughter that filled the room and left her staring. She had never heard him laugh before, whether in Nadeshiko-mode or not.

"Right, Rima-chan."

And she was back to glaring. "Yes. Exactly. Now leave me alone. You can do the stupid laundry."

"Wait, can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Are you and Nagihiko friends now?"

She frowned. _We had a huge fight and apologized… but he has a point; do we still hate each other, or are we okay with each other, or are we friends? I don't know, but I'll go with the vaguest answer. _"I'm friends with _you_, I suppose," she said casually, heading back up the stairs.

He watched her go. _Interesting._

* * *

To her utter amazement, Nagihiko had handled the laundry perfectly well. Now, she was grilling him, determined to find out how he hadn't made a single error. "How did you know to use soap?"

"Well, I guessed."

"How did you know which buttons to press?"

"I guessed."

"How did you – oh, I give up."

"Okay, then!" she – _he_, not _she – _said cheerfully. "Let's talk."

"About what?"

"Anything."

"Just because I'm a _girl_ doesn't mean I voluntarily participate in petty small talk. Especially not _girl_ talk."

"I'll start, then –"

"You're ignoring me."

"Well, I want to talk. I'm bored."

"Not all girls like to gossip."

"We're not gossiping. We're talking. Besides, there's nothing else to do."

Rima groaned. "Fine. Whatever. Say something."

"Why do you keep your hair long?"

"That was probably the worst conversation topic ever. Why do _you_?"

She – Rima had given up referring to him as a "he" – tilted her head to the side. "Um… I think it looks pretty. Girly, kinda. I wanted to cut my hair when we moved, but I had gotten used to long hair by then."

"You're so sexist."

"You can't be sexist towards your own gender. Besides, Nagihiko has long hair too."

Rima resisted the urge to smack her. _Can't be sexist to girls if you're a girl, huh? I'm going to get you back for this, Nagihiko. _"Then why'd you say it was girly?"

"What's wrong with saying Nagihiko looks girly? He does." Rima laughed at how easily she (or he) was able to insult herself (or himself), and Nadeshiko shrugged. "Okay, then, why do you keep your hair long?"

"Because I feel like it?"

"Why? You seem like the kind of person who does whatever's convenient. No offense. And long hair is a disaster when you're trying to tame it, don't you think? And your hair is wavy. Short hair would match you a lot more."

"Fine, you want to know the truth?"

"Sure."

It was still painful to Rima's pride as she said it. "When your brother came into my life, I started mentally competing with him on _everything_. Including hair length. I would have cut it a long time ago, but I was waiting until your brother cut his hair. He never did, though. It was… annoying." She was suddenly realizing that all along, _she_ had been annoying.

"Do you want me to cut my hair?"

Her head snapped up, the expression on her face equal parts surprise and suspicion. "You would? Why?"

"It doesn't really matter to me. Let's go."

* * *

But of course, it ended up mattering.

Rima was standing in a corner, trying to stifle her laughter as Nagihiko – who looked a lot more like Nagihiko now that his hair was down – kept failing to make the ends of his hair even. More and more purple hair was being scattered across the floor, and his once knee-length hair was now slightly above his waist, but it was still as ragged as it had been when he'd first begun. Finally, he surrendered. "Rima-chan, can you help me?"

She smiled. "Sure, _Nadeshiko_." And she grabbed the scissors. Within a minute and a half, Nagihiko's hair was more perfect than it had been before. He stared at his mirror reflection, astonished, and tied his hair up again, becoming Nadeshiko once more. "And you call me – I mean, you call Nagihiko perfect? Rima, this is _amazing._"

Rima rolled her eyes, but she couldn't hide the ridiculously wide grin that spread across her face.

The rest of the day passed like that – laughing, teasing, some competition, and more "girl talk".

* * *

They were lying on Rima's bed. It was about ten-thirty, and in Rima's defense, she was exhausted when she made her request. "Nadeshiko, can I sleep with you?"

The pair of brown eyes she was looking sleepily into widened. "Why?"

"I had a nightmare. Stay." Her eyes closed.

"Okay, then." Nagihiko turned off the lights, pulled off the ponytail, and smiled lightly.

The blonde girl he had come to associate with hell might not be so evil after all.

* * *

**No super-long author's note, since I literally have two minutes left. Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"You're going to have a single challenge for your next two memories."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because there's a high chance you won't pass." Seeing the expressions on their faces, the queen smiled. "Don't worry, there's also a chance, however minimal, that you won't die."_


	13. Emotion Experiments

**Warning: Rima is getting really weird.**

**No, seriously. She is. I swear this is just because she's starting to feel kind of awkward from living with him for so long (ironically) and from the past day's events, not because she likes him, because I would make them die before I made her like him this soon in the story.**

**By the way, I will not make them die, because I am a believer in happy endings. Just saying.**

* * *

Nagihiko was woken up early in the morning by a shove off the bed. Rubbing his head, he muttered sleepily, "Rima-chan?"

"Why are you sleeping on my bed?" she demanded.

He blinked a couple of times, and his vision cleared. The girl sitting on the bed above him was glaring down at him, apparently having no recollection of the night before. "You told me to."

"What are you talking about?" Memories immediately flooded her brain, and just as quickly, red flooded her face. "I-I was half-delirious!"

"Sorry," he mumbled, taking her by surprise. "I was tired too, I suppose…"

Maybe it was the annoyance, but for some reason, what Rima blurted out didn't correspond with what she'd meant to say. _"It doesn't matter, then. I'm going to go and make breakfast now, since we're both awake."_"Why do you always apologize for things that aren't your fault?"

The look he gave her – one that seemed to resemble one of a lost little boy – didn't help to put her at ease. "Weren't you mad at me a second ago?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I –" Suddenly aware of how hot her cheeks were, she lay down facing away from him. "Never mind. I'm going to get some more sleep."

When he sat down beside her and began absentmindedly fingering her hair, she was reminded of the time she'd bawled her eyes out in front of him. That didn't help either. "What are you doing?" was her mumbled reply to – what the heck _was_ he doing anyway?

A small, tentative grin flickered cautiously over his face. "Seeing if someone can really faint from blushing too much?"

Her eyes widened. Before the meaning of the words had even fully sunk in, she moved, so focused on getting away that she rolled off the bed. "Ow…" she muttered. She _did_ kind of deserve it, though, as she'd pushed him off –

_Him. _Ugh. Maybe she _would_ faint from blushing, and break a record in the process. Not that anyone would be there to see it, but maybe he could catch it on video –

_He. _Mortified to death, it was all she could do to glance up at him before staring pointedly at the ground, now feeling guilty. The smile, so small and fleeting, was already gone. "Sorry," he sighed, looking away again. "I'll leave now. You can go back to sleep or something. It's pretty early."

Abruptly, he got off the bed and left, leaving her staring at the closed door. What was with her, anyway? Why had she done that?

Or, why had he done that? She had to admit she didn't exactly know why she'd tried to get away from him so fast – it wasn't like she was mad at him for making fun of her, since she'd basically mocked and insulted him from the moment they'd met, and it seemed only fair, really – but it probably had something to do with the fact that he'd never done that before.

All her life, she'd known nice Nagihiko, the Nagihiko that never provoked anyone and went out of his way to make others happy. Not the teasing spark in his eyes, nor the grin, no matter how hesitant or carefully guarded they were.

So why had he acted like that? It had felt like… he was testing her, almost, to see how she would react. And she had not reacted positively.

But she had been surprised, that was all. It was _his_ fault that he had been like that. And how was she supposed to react, anyway? That had been _lame_. _"Oh, Nagihiko, that's so hilarious! Fainting from blushing! You should totally write a joke book!"_

An unnaturally fierce scowl formed on her face. It always ended like this, now that they were the only two people in the world. Even if they were able to get along, even if they actually acted like friends for a while, it always came back to this. Nagihiko getting hurt but trying not to show it – and failing miserably, and on top of that being so _obvious _about it that it was maddening. Rima somehow offending him or making him feel inferior without even trying – and with no idea what she was even doing, or what he interpreted her words and actions as, or why he acted the way he did, or how he could be such a _mystery_ to her now when a month before he had been nothing but a best-friend-stealing goody-goody that was too nice to talk back in her eyes.

It was just so frustrating. And whenever Rima Mashiro was frustrated, she did not wait around for the problem to go away. She fixed it (or at least tried to fix it, as she still hadn't been able to fix the problem of Amu and Nagihiko before she made her wish), and this was no exception.

She went after him.

* * *

_"Seeing if someone can really faint from blushing too much?"_ That had to be the one of the lamest things that had ever escaped Nagihiko Fujisaki's lips. (It was "one of the" instead of "the" because his mouth had gone haywire twice before, once because of Saaya Yamabuki and the other because of Amu Hinamori.)

He'd been too bold. He should have known they weren't on good terms yet – well, at least not that good. It was true that yesterday she'd laughed, cut his hair, told him things, and basically managed to have a good time with him… but it hadn't been him. It had been Nadeshiko. This proved it. She would still get angry if teased… by him. But when he was pretending to be a girl, it was okay…

Was she still mad at him for stealing Amu?

Rima grabbed his hand. He turned around, surprised. "Rima-chan?" And then his eyes widened.

She looked _furious_.

He went slightly pale. "Um…"

"Why," she burst out angrily, "can't we ever have a _normal__conversation_?"

_Because of you_, he thought, but something told him that she didn't need to hear that right now. "Uh…"

"Say something!" She squeezed his hand, and he winced. She was stronger than she looked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Anything besides that! Your apologies for everything and anything that happens, including things that are _my_ fault, do not constitute a normal conversation!" His hand was going numb.

"Rima-chan, you're going to break my fingers." It was the only thing he could think of.

Rima blinked and looked down at their hands. "Oops." She let go, looking embarrassed, yet also a bit mollified. "Finally_._"

"Huh?"

"You said something normal. Normal as in not 'what', 'huh', 'um', 'uh', 'well', 'okay', 'Rima-chan', and 'I'm sorry'."

"Oh."

"And 'oh'." She glared at him. "From now on, we are going to have normal conversations, whether you like it or not. Do you hear me?"

As she stormed away, Nagihiko couldn't help but fight the urge to laugh.

_I don't think that was a normal conversation._

* * *

She was a total mystery, one that he _could not _solve no matter how much he tried.

Right after the declaration that they were going to have "normal conversations", she had been avoiding him like the plague. And, as much as he hated to admit it, he was getting annoyed.

But of course, his "kindness" refused to let him confront her again. So when the queen sent him a message, telling them to see her, he was all too happy to have a reason to talk.

"Hey, Rima-chan."

She, who had been staring at the wall, apparently waiting for the paint to peel, flinched and whirled around to face him. "What?" she asked, both voice and face holding more than an edge of defensiveness to it.

It was all he could do not to groan out loud. "We have to go see the queen."

The defensiveness faded. "Oh." Her eyes darted everywhere, left, right, up, down, like she wanted to escape and couldn't find a way out – but escape from what? From him?

Geez.

* * *

"I am here to talk about the challenge." She looked as regal as ever, but today, she seemed to be scrutinizing them, her eyes never letting go of the calculating expression they held. Nagihiko felt Rima shift nervously beside him.

When neither said anything, the queen went on. "You're going to have a single challenge for your next two memories."

"Why?" Both spoke in unison.

"Because there's a high chance you won't pass." Seeing the expressions on their faces, the queen smiled. "Don't worry, there's also a chance, however minimal, that you won't die."

Nagihiko expected Rima to explode with fury, but to his surprise, she looked stunned, like she literally couldn't believe the queen was saying this. "Why?" she finally whispered.

"Because I want to." Immediately, they were back in the park.

_Now_ she would explode. Or so he thought. Instead, she said something completely unexpected.

"Did you notice she was using contractions?"

"What?" he asked, puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

Rima's face was strangely calm. "Remember? She said, '_You're_ going to have a single challenge for your next two memories.' She said that_there's _a high chance we _won't_ pass, and that _there's_ also a chance that we _won't_ die. She always speaks so formally, but today, she was… different. Like she forgot or something. Or maybe she was doing it on purpose. Maybe she's actually…"

He had no idea where she was going with this. "Maybe she's actually what?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. It was just a thought."

Still perplexed, he just followed her back home.

* * *

Despite what Rima and Nagihiko probably thought, the queen did not have complete control of the universe. She could control everything… but humans. Human actions, to be more precise.

She had first learned this when, in a rare moment of pity, she'd tried to spare a little girl from being murdered.

It hadn't worked. The murderer had paused, his finger on the trigger, but he'd shot her anyway. Bewildered, furious, and shocked, she'd gone crazy for the first time in a couple billion years, trying to find out why she wasn't able to control him, what had caused it. It hadn't been about the girl anymore; it had been about her lack of control. Finally, she'd figured it out.

It was human emotions. She could not control humans because she didn't understand human emotions.

Emotions caused people to act, didn't they? And actions, whether big or small, changed history. Changed the way of the world. Changed everything. And human emotions were at the root of it.

Human emotions changed her too, changed her outlook of the world. At first, she had marveled at how those tiny, insignificant humans functioned so well. If she didn't do anything, just sat back and watched, they would be perfectly fine. In other alternate universes, her alternate selves – the queens of those universes – had to constantly do things for_their_ humans, but the humans in her universe were completely independent.

Now, however, they made her furious. Emotions caused beliefs and disbeliefs, too, and why didn't they believe in magic? Suddenly, she was bored. Her having no knowledge about the way emotions worked was limiting her role in the human world.

She began to test these humans.

At first, she had caused some of the greatest "natural" disasters in history, but soon she'd gotten bored of that, too. They always reacted in the same way every time – sadness because their loved ones had died, horror, shock. It was never any different.

Her Plan B was to just observe things more closely. At first she'd settled for the big things, the crimes, but those were also boring. They always had the same results, emotion-wise. Child abuse? Utterly dreary. Rape? Why not just put her to sleep?

And just when she had been on the verge of causing the greatest disaster in history, one that would wipe out half the human population to boot, she had seen _him_. And she had gotten curious.

It was set up perfectly. A boy who loved to dance, but lived in a sexist city and had to dress as a girl to do so. A boy who had told his best friend his greatest secret, and been betrayed. A boy who had indirectly caused his and his mother's downfall.

And through it all, he kept smiling.

It had been better than any crime in the history of the universe. And she had been interested.

She could not control human actions ruled by emotions – it all came back to emotions – but she could control human actions without any emotions directly related to them. So when Nagihiko's mom had squeezed her eyes shut and jabbed her finger at a random spot on a map of Japan, she had been responsible for the fact that before her finger had landed, it had moved barely a millimeter to the right.

Why? The answer was obvious. If Nagihiko Fujisaki had moved to Tokyo, where his mother's finger would otherwise have landed, it would have been a waste of an amazing opportunity. No matter where in Tokyo they moved, the queen could only see predictable, utterly boring things happening.

But if he moved to the small, unimportant city _next _to Tokyo, if he crossed paths with a girl named Rima Mashiro, a girl with a past involving another boring (or "tragic", as other humans would call it) crime, a girl who was now utterly obsessed with keeping her best friend to herself, what then?

What would happen if he stole that best friend, whether by design or on accident? The queen was determined to find out.

However, even that had grown tiresome. At first, the emotion involved had been wild, unpredictable, amazing. The girl had grown so hostile even she could not believe it… and she had taken the chance to conduct more research. She'd even messed with the mind of a staff member just so Nagihiko would be chosen as Cinderella for a school play, when he obviously did not want the part.

But it had soon gotten boring, as usual. Every day was the same – Rima would insult him at every chance she got, and he would smile back at her and basically ignore it.

Fate was a funny thing. Just as she'd decided to turn her attention somewhere else, something eerily similar to Nagihiko's past had happened to Rima. She'd told her best friend, the one who she was so stingy about, her biggest secret. With good intentions, said best friend had told another girl by the name of Yaya Yuiki. And Yaya, misunderstanding the situation and feeling angry, had criticized Rima for it.

And she'd made a wish that humankind would disappear.

It was so completely perfect that the queen had been shocked. Not only would she learn millennia's worth of information about human emotions, she'd also receive entertainment, the thing she'd been craving for so long. Of course, she had granted the wish, sending a shooting star streaming past Rima for added amusement.

Well, she hadn't completely granted the wish. She'd left Nagihiko Fujisaki there too, shell-shocked while his friend, Tadase, disappeared before his eyes.

And then, she'd added the diamonds, the memories, and the challenges. All this was meant to play to their emotions, their sensitive spots, their – as humans called it – "nerves".

She had pretended to everyone, including her only advisor and assistant in ruling the universe, that the girl had intrigued her from the beginning, when the boy had. She had said once to him that it might have been a mistake to leave Nagihiko there with Rima, instead of someone else, when in reality she wouldn't have considered any other person. She had pretended to be irritated that he had left Rima so quickly to find out the meaning of the code.

She had been fascinated. She remembered thinking that she had definitely done the right thing, the emotions had come into play more immediately than they had in any other situation. He had acted so different.

But the best thing about it was that it could never fail. If she was unhappy with the way the emotions turned out, if they got too predictable, she could simply erase their memories and make them go through the whole thing again, maybe changing some factors. Maybe factors she considered useless could trigger something, a feeling that would cause a whole series of events and more emotions. For example, she could make half the diamonds topazes and the other half amethysts…

Of course, she _would_ do other things differently. Next time, she'd make them go through something worse to get the jewels.

True, she had thought about every possibility, and considered that they might die. Of course, their lives were too valuable to her investigation to throw away for no reason, but what if they died on accident? She couldn't bring the dead back to life. It was impossible for her.

But then, she had concluded that it didn't matter. There were still prospects. If, right after Rima had made her wish, she'd run out and disappeared forever with Nagihiko, how would Amu and Yaya react? Definitely negatively, but to what extent?

And if she got bored of that, she could redo the entire thing again, and change everyone's memory so Rima and Nagihiko had never existed. How would that work out? What would it be like?

So in the end, if they died, it didn't really matter.

After all, they were just lab rats in an experiment on human emotions.

* * *

**So the queen's intentions have finally been revealed. She wants… entertainment and knowledge, basically.**

**It probably seems like she's evil right now, but she's not. Just really bored. I won't make her evil, because trust me, I can't write a story where the ruler of the universe is evil. That would be warped. Unless it were a "Love can beat everything!" thing. (On second thought, I COULD make them… no, scratch that. That would be totally weird.)**

**Can't think of anything else to say, so bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"What the heck?" Rima frowned at their surroundings. "Is this… a jungle?"_

_Nagihiko sighed. "No, it's a rainforest. But what are we supposed to do?"_

_He had directed the question at Rima (knowing full well she couldn't answer it), but the queen answered. _Find the diamond.


	14. Brown Eyes

They were arguing.

She didn't want to do the challenge at all. He wanted to do it that very day.

"No," Rima said coldly. "We will _not_ do the challenge right now. In fact, we'll do the challenge when I feel like throwing my life away."

"Well, can't we just get it over with? I mean, we'll either have to do it sometime, or we'll have to live with each other forever, which…" How to put it? "Which you might not like very much. And if we have to do it sometime, why not hurry and finish it as soon as possible?"

"I don't like the idea of living with you forever for the rest of my life because _you_ are _annoying_. Even so, I'd rather live with you than die. Are you saying that we should just kill ourselves now, because we're both going to die sometime in the future? Are you saying that we should just get death over with, so we won't have to worry about it in the afterlife?"

"This is different."

"You idiot, this is exactly the same. She said we would _die_."

"She said there's still a chance we won't die, and still a chance we'll pass."

"A chance? Fujisaki, a _chance_? You're going to cling onto that? Well, I won't. You can do the challenge without me."

"Rima-chan, I can't do it without you! I would if I could, but it's also your –"

She looked at him disbelievingly. "Why are you so desperate to do this?"

_It's so obvious,_ he thought. "To bring humankind back. Rima-chan, I'm not trying to offend you or anything, but what's the point in living when there's only one person left with you and you _know_ you could do something to bring back the others?"

Her eyes widened slightly, but she remained silent. He decided it wouldn't hurt to continue. Silence was better than an argument, right? "Why aren't you willing to do the challenge if you… hate me? Wouldn't it be better to –"

"Nagihiko, I don't hate you."

This time _he_ was the one stunned into silence.

"Is it that surprising? I never hated you. Happy now?"

He sighed. "Yes. But please, we _need_ to do this. Don't you have anyone you want to bring back? Your parents? Amu? Yaya?"

"None of them." Rima looked away defiantly.

"Why not?"

More silence. He decided to try something different. "Then why did you do the first challenge? And the second one?"

Rima rolled her eyes. "The first time, I didn't even know what was happening. The second time, I had just finished spilling my utterly personal feelings about you, and all of a sudden you wanted to go there, and seriously, you looked mad as hell, and I mean even madder than the time you went off to solve the code without me. How could I say no? And I was _not_ scared of you, by the way. I was just going along with you because you looked like you might explode on me, and that would be a bit inconvenient. But that's not the point."

She'd probably reminded him of that to make him feel guilty… but he still wasn't going to back off. "Rima-chan, isn't there… anyone you want to see? You said we're going to die anyway. This is going to sound kind of lame, but if you died like this, with only me as company, wouldn't you have any regrets? Involving people?"

She went silent again. Then, she unexpectedly snapped, "Fine, Fujisaki. If it really makes you happy, we'll do it. But if we die…"

He could feel himself holding back a grin, though he did wonder why she'd given in so easily. "Then what? You'll kill me?"

He instantly regretted those words as another silence formed. Remembering what had happened the last time he teased her, he thought, _I need to start learning from my mistakes…_

But then, she spoke. "You know, I might murder you _before_ we do the challenge."

Nagihiko let out a sigh of relief.

In a way, she had saved the conversation… or at least saved it from being a replay of what had happened last time.

* * *

She wasn't sitting down on the bench.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, only half meaning it. Of course she'd be hesitant – they weren't even sure if they were going to come out alive.

Rima bit her lip, looking away. _I'm not even sure myself._

No, it was denial, and she knew exactly what was wrong. What was wrong was that she wanted to say something ridiculous or useless, like the things Nagihiko always said. _I'm sorry, it was all my fault, thank you._Something that, if they died, would make up for how she'd treated him before.

But she couldn't.

How had she managed to gather up so much willpower on that day so many years ago? She was in just as bad a situation – no, she might even be in a worse situation, although it didn't seem possible… and…

It was pride, the stupid thing. Last time, she'd been fighting for her pride. This time, she was fighting against it.

"Nothing," she bit out, furious at herself, and sat down.

They disappeared.

* * *

Nagihiko stood up, eyes instantly darting around the area, taking in everything.

"What the heck?" Rima frowned at their surroundings. "Is this… a jungle?"

Nagihiko sighed. "No, it's a rainforest. But what are we supposed to do?"

He had directed the question at Rima (knowing full well she couldn't answer it), but the queen answered. _Find the diamond._

Apparently Rima had heard it too. "How big is this area, even?" she asked incredulously.

_That will not be a problem._

She just gritted her teeth. "Oh, really? How won't it be?"

_Perhaps I should have rephrased my words. You will have to… retrieve the diamond. _Then, she was gone.

"Rima-chan –"

"Fujisaki…" He glanced at her. "We should split up."

"Huh? Why?" She was staring directly at him for once, and it made him feel strange, as she had spent so much time recently _not_ looking at him.

"I think we'd be more efficient. We don't know how large this place is, so why not cover as much territory as possible?"

"But the queen said that –"

"We can't trust the queen. She's the one making the challenges, remember? And she'll try to make them as hard as possible."

"But she gave us clues the last two times, so why –" Realization hit him, so suddenly it nearly knocked him over. "You're trying to avoid me." Not a question. Just a plain statement of fact.

"No, I'm not," she retorted quickly. Too quickly.

_Yes, you are, Rima. You are, but why? _He felt something strange, part fury, confusion, and maybe sadness, a combination that stabbed at him. What was wrong with him in her eyes? Why did she hate him so much? No, he wasn't even sure if she hated him, but he knew he would prefer that to this indecision she was apparently going through now. One moment, they were almost friends, and the next moment… "You would risk dying for some time away from me?"

"No!" Would he really believe her if she said she hadn't been thinking? The look he was giving her made her feel like some sort of…

"Were you lying when you said you didn't hate me?" He was watching her intently now, gauging her reaction, and she didn't like it.

"No, I just…" And while floundering around for an answer, while his eyes were stabbing into hers, into her mind, a stupidly irrelevant, almost desperate thought came to her.

_I never knew his eyes were brown._

It was like a trigger. Almost instantly, her mind began spiraling out of control, and then she was thinking: _His eyes are brown, and I never knew that, and I thought of him as my worst enemy, and I thought I knew everything about him, and he was just supposed to be some self-satisfied teacher's pet who I could defeat if I really tried, but I'm losing now, and his eyes are brown, and I didn't know… so if I thought wrong, and I didn't know him, then who is he?_

_Who is he?_

_Who is Nagihiko Fujisaki?_

It was all so obvious now, why Rima had been feeling so weird, like she wanted to talk to him or even become friends with him one moment and run away the next. Why, when he'd apologized and left after teasing her for the first time, she had run after him and told him they would have normal conversations, when she'd really wanted to scream at him, ask him if he thought she was some delicate little girl who couldn't take a joke.

Why, within that exact same _hour_, when he'd told her about the queen telling them to see her, she'd wanted to leave like he had, but faster than he'd ever left her, faster than she'd ever left him, faster than she'd ever left _anyone_.

Why she'd wanted to tell him something stupid like _thank you_ before she pushed it back and sat down on the bench, and then wanted so badly to be away from him after she stood up from it.

It was because she'd thought she'd known everything about him the moment they met, and now, she was just realizing she didn't know anything about him at all.

Before now, she hadn't even known his eye color. The discovery was so shocking that she blurted it out. "No, I just don't know anything about you!"

He looked bewildered. "Rima-chan? What do you mean?"

She couldn't stand him staring at her any more than she could before. So she did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

It was a mistake the queen had been anticipating, and would now take advantage of.

* * *

**Ugh… why do I always do this? I put a preview that heavily implies something cool is going to happen the next chapter, and the cool thing actually happens the chapter after the next one, and the chapter you guys thought it was going to be in is just the BEGINNING of… the cool thing. I bet that didn't make any sense, but either way, sorry to the people who actually read the previews. (At least I update relatively fast compared to other people. I think. Maybe.) Don't worry though, the cool thing (in this case, the actual challenge) will come next chapter. As usual.**

**Yeah, this chapter was short, and more than an eighth of it was one of Rima's ERs (Emotion Rants), but hey, I have reasons. **

**DIGRESSION ALERT: For some reason, whenever I explain a character's emotions, I make it super super long (but this one still pales in comparison to the queen's ER last chapter, which was about 1300 words… though it WAS mixed in with her past. Whatever), and yeah, I basically rant rant rant, on and on and on. Is it bad that I also think my writing is better whenever I rant? END OF DIGRESSION, and yes, I stole this (the digression thing) from an author/columnist who I have totally been stalking lately, which is stupid considering he's around sixty-five right now (told you I stalked him). Wanna guess? His initials are DB, and I can't physically stalk him because I don't live in Miami.**

**The point is that the chapter was short because there are two maybe super-long scenes (possibly involving a ton of rants, possibly not) in the next chapter, and I want them to stay in one chapter. I think (hope) nobody cares though, so yay.**

**By the way, the queen has serious favoritism issues, and Nagihiko is preferred over Rima. (Duh, because he temporarily helped cure her boredom and Rima is just an extra.) So don't worry, he won't go through as much torture as poor her (read the preview, and yes, I am evil, but I blame it on the queen)…**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_There was an instant where she felt completely numb. Her hearing was also considerably muted, but she could still perceive that something – or multiple things – in her body had snapped, splintered, torn apart. And in that second, time seemed to slow down, leaving her to dread the pure agony that she knew would soon follow._

_Then, the moment was gone. Incredible pain shot through her, through every bone in her body, through her head, through her heart, through every muscle, every fiber of her being. A scream, which had already formed and built up in her throat in that second of detachment, tried to let itself loose, but died on her lips before it could._

_She could not scream. She could not do anything._

Nagihiko…


	15. Like a Cartoon

**I COULD lie and say I was on vacation, but the fact is that I wasn't – I'd actually finished writing the chapter, I was just in a weird mood and was too lazy to publish – and this chapter… ugh, this chapter…**

**I came back to it after about a week, and I nearly puked. So it's not as bad as it might have been if I had published it earlier, but… not my best chapter, for sure. (Aka I want to make it WAY better but all I can do is glare at it.) Because for some reason, no matter how terrible a chapter of mine is, I can't really do anything to make it better. Unless I wrote it at least half a year ago. But I wouldn't even dare pick up stuff I wrote half a year ago – I'd die from embarrassment. (I nearly went comatose from something I wrote four months ago.)**

**GOSH NAGIHIKO'S CHALLENGE THINGY IS TERRIBLE. Insert keyboard smash.**

**Anyway, here's the "chapter". Though I guess it depends on what you call a "chapter". (And again, SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT.)**

* * *

When her surroundings began changing from that "rainforest" place (she still thought it was a jungle) they'd been before to someplace else entirely, she began to backtrack.

But she couldn't get out of this strange new place she was in, which was beginning to look suspiciously like a desert.

After about ten minutes, she noticed that she was dizzy. _I'm in a desert, so… thirst, maybe? _It didn't feel like thirst, though. Slowly, it became harder to walk, until she sank to the floor, panting. _Why can't I move?_

_Look back, _the queen said.

And she looked back. And her eyes widened.

At first, it looked like a huge green wall was behind – far behind – her, but then, she realized with a jolt that it was the jungle. _But why is it sticking straight up, like a wall or something? Nagihiko's there, so is he actually defying gravity or –_

Then, the dizziness kicked in, and she realized that the jungle wasn't the wall, and Nagihiko – wherever he was – wasn't defying gravity.

She was.

It was like a cartoon, almost. As soon as she realized that she was actually slumped down on a vertical surface, and that was _not_supposed to happen according to the law of gravity, she began to fall backwards, down into the jungle. She shrieked, terrified, and as she fell faster, she looked around for something to grab on.

Fortunately, she saw something, and reached out to grasp it. Unfortunately, it was a cactus. The sharp needles dug deeply into her hands, and she gritted her teeth, trying not to let go, trying not to look at the blood trickling slowly down her arms.

Rima hung there for what felt like an eternity, and, finally succumbing to the exhaustion and pain in her arms, let go.

She fell.

She crashed.

She _shattered._

There was an instant where she felt completely numb, though she could still hear something – maybe multiple things – break, crack, splinter. And in that second, time seemed to slow down, leaving her to dread the agony that she knew would soon follow.

Then, the moment was gone. Incredible pain shot through her, through every bone in her body, through her head, through her heart, through every muscle, every fiber of her being. A scream, which had already formed and built up in her throat in that second of detachment, tried to let itself loose, but died on her lips before it could.

She could not scream. She could not do anything.

_Nagihiko…_

But he wouldn't come unless called, and the pain had taken away her ability to call for him.

The pain had taken away everything.

Every few seconds of torture felt like years. Slowly, feeling like they weighed a ton each, Rima managed to move her eyes up to look in front of her.

She saw a frighteningly large pool of blood – her own, no doubt – and in it the diamond. It glittered about five feet in front of her, taunting her with the way the sun reflected off it, making her moan slightly as the light hit her eyes.

If she got the diamond, it would be over.

This pure, driving agony would be gone. Focusing on that, and that alone, she lifted up her arm, whimpering as more pain shot through it, and stretched.

This time she did somehow muster up the energy to scream, a wild, tormented sound even to her own ears. The diamond, which was nowhere closer, seemed to fade slightly. _More… I need to move forward… more…_

Her eyes weighed more than a ton… she wanted to close them… to yield to the darkness flickering at their corners.

No, she couldn't think about that. She couldn't think about anything. Every thought was another stab of pain, and every stab of pain dragged her down into the darkness. And as much as she wanted to go unconscious, she couldn't.

She'd never wake up again.

She'd die.

_I'll do it in one shot. _And unmistakable fear exploded through her body, dimming the pain, at the thought.

She had to. Like ripping off a Band-Aid, or jumping into a cold pool. Either way, it would be over soon.

She launched herself forward.

She screamed.

She registered pain, and blinding numbness.

She felt her vision go black.

And at the last second of consciousness, she grabbed the diamond.

* * *

He was a lot faster than her, he knew. So why couldn't he find her? He _knew_ she'd run off in this direction, and he'd been less than two seconds behind.

Unless, of course, the queen had done something, and if so, there was nothing he could do about it now.

But… what Rima had said… she didn't know anything about him? What was she even talking about? _He_ didn't know anything about _her_. One moment, she was acting all nice and _friendly_, and the next moment, she was acting like he was… well… her worst enemy. Though he technically was her worst enemy.

Then why the former?

If Nagihiko hadn't been so engrossed in thought, he would have noticed the _very obvious_ trap in front of him – a hole covered with some sort of grassy plant, like in the cartoons. But he didn't notice, and as soon as he stepped on it, the grass gave way, and he fell, accelerating to the ground and unable to do anything.

To his surprise, the bottom was cushiony and wet, and he wasn't injured at all. Standing up quickly, he thought, _I'm going to have to get back to the top, I guess._

He slowly placed his hand on the wall of the hole he was in. Unlike the ground, it seemed to be made up of huge boulder-like rocks – were rainforest floors even made of rocks?

He also couldn't help noticing that he'd fallen a long way, and that it looked hard to get back up. But it wasn't _impossible._ So… _Is there a catch to getting back up? _Nagihiko asked the queen.

_This hole? _Evidently, the queen had expected him to ask, and had already prepared her answer. _To get out, you will have to reach the top in five minutes. After the time limit, you will be unable to get out again. The time starts… now._

Biting his lip, heart pounding, Nagihiko placed a foot on top of a rock and hoisted himself up onto the next one. The rocks weren't slippery, but they were large and barely had any crevices, making it harder to climb.

_Focus on the top_, he told himself, and began to climb more quickly. _You only have five minutes. Get to the top. Get to the top._

He took barely half a second to stop, clench a fist, and force himself to stop shaking.

The five minutes passed in a blur, even with him climbing as fast as he could. When he was still quite far from the top (or it seemed to him), he heard the queen's voice.

_Five…_

A burst of adrenaline coursed through him, and he began to move faster than he ever had before. As he stepped on a rock and grabbed another, wincing as his shoe was yanked off but not stopping to retrieve it.

_Four…_

Stupid socks. Stupid, stupid socks.

_Three…_

He yanked off his sock.

_Two…_

Desperation pulled him up even faster.

_One…_

It wasn't fast enough.

_Zero._

He didn't make it.

For a second, he stayed in the position he was in, the sound of his heart ringing in his ears, afraid that the walls would crumble and bury him, or that knives would stick out of them, or even that he'd be smothered by… something. Bugs. Feathers. Anything.

So he was completely unprepared for what happened next. A completely unexpected sensation hit him. He gasped involuntarily and tried to make his trembling arms hold on to the wall.

It was cold.

It was not just cold. It was suffocating, blinding _ice_ that wrapped around him – that was the word. Ice. Like there were tiny ice cubes clinging to him, drawing out the heat in his body. _I can still get up. It's just cold, that's all._

Of course, he was deluding himself. As he slowly made his way up, it seemed to get even _colder _– but that wasn't possible, was it?

Nagihiko noticed that he was wearing a T-shirt, and that he was shivering so badly he couldn't even focus his eyes on his arms.

Thirty seconds later, he dropped. It seemed to last forever. His only comfort was that it was getting warm –

Why was it getting warmer?

It wasn't just getting warmer. It was getting… hot.

His eyes widened; it was getting hotter the more he fell. He was going to _fry_ to death. Somehow, he managed to grab onto the wall and clung onto it, breathing heavily in the stifling heat. Beads of sweat were already rolling down his face.

So it got colder the higher he went and warmer the lower he went, huh? How was he supposed to get back up? His blood was going to freeze in his veins. _I need to get higher up. It's too hot to think. _He did exactly that.

Once he was in a comfortable place, the fatigue finally hit him. He had been hanging, climbing, and falling for who knew how long – when would he finally let go and burn?

This was so utterly depressing. _Your Majesty, could you…_

_Think about what I said before._

_You mean when you told me to get to the top in five minutes?_

_Possibly._

_Can I have a clue?_

_This is your clue. Think about what I said._

_From what point?_

_I cannot tell you._

"Come on!" he finally cried out loud. "Just help me figure this out! If I can't get out of here, because if I try I'm going to freeze, then what am I supposed to do? It's physically impossible for any human to survive such cold temperatures!"

He went silent, a new thought having struck him.

He was right. It was impossible to get out with the conditions provided. But…

_I'm not even supposed to get out of here, am I?_

_You have your answer._

He was stunned.

_Your Majesty, how do you… _He couldn't help but smile.

_Oh?_

_Never mind. But you tricked me, didn't you?_

_I did not trick you; I merely provided you with the information you asked, and no extra. Humans give unneeded information, and because of this, the unneeded information becomes necessary, so much that they will fail to complete the task without it._

He remembered what she'd said. _To get out, you will have to reach the top in five minutes. After the time limit, you will be unable to get out again._

She hadn't told him that he was supposed to get out, just that he'd have to get out in five minutes if he wanted to. And in doing so, he'd lost sight of his real goal. The diamond, which he'd need to pass the challenge.

_So the diamond is somewhere in this hole?_

_Within the walls. I suppose that I could tell you to look, but keeping you two here is tiring. Rima Mashiro is done with her challenge, so I might as well pass you. Look in the crevice between the rock you are holding on to and the one above._

The diamond.

He grabbed it and let go, succumbing to his weariness.

Everything went dark.

* * *

"Why are we in the park?" He never thought he'd miss her annoyed, high-pitched voice, but he did.

"Well, there _were_ two challenges, so I think that there are two memories." He glanced at the bench. "And one of us will have to do the hand-raising thing. Can you go first?"

She glared at him. "Do you even know how traumatizing my challenge was? I pretty much got snapped in half like a rag doll, and I bet you didn't have to do something nearly as bad because she likes you more." Secretly, though, she was more glad that there were no aftereffects, like a limp or even a bit of residual pain – apparently her body had gone to the way it was before the challenge.

He winced guiltily. "Yeah, mine was just a brain puzzle thing. Sorry." _Not really. There was a lot of climbing._

She blinked at him, and when she opened her eyes, something had changed in them. "I'll go first."

"Huh?"

"That's for apologizing. Now I'll go first, since you apologized for no reason." Nagihiko figured out what had changed in her eyes – she was _angry._ _Not again_, he thought. He couldn't deal with another weird mood swing – sooner or later, she'd start trying to avoid him at all costs, like she had during the challenge. As if she could read his mind, she said, "And besides, I was the one who ran off during the challenge."

"But you were the one who got snapped in half like a rag doll, like you said." It almost hurt to repeat her words.

"I thought you were asking me to go first."

And for some reason, he thought it would be wise to say the words that would anger her the most. "Rima-chan… I don't know anything about you either."

Rima's eyes flashed, and suddenly, she had grabbed his hand and dragged him to the bench. Before he could protest, she raised her hand.

And they were gone.

* * *

**I PROMISE I WILL UPDATE FASTER SOB SOB.**

**Anyway, guess where I got the inspiration for Nagi's challenge. That's right, the place where I live has CRAZY bipolar weather. I won't say anything else, or I might go on a full-scale rant about the weather and jackets and weather predictions and long hair and stuff you don't really want to hear.**

**I PROMISE I WILL UPDATE FASTER SOB SOB. I can't say this is a one-time thing, because I can't predict the future, but… I PROMISE I WILL TRY TO UPDATE FASTER SOB SOB.**

**The preview isn't in italics on purpose because the memory is, and normally stuff that isn't in italics in the story is in the preview, and I want to keep it consistent. And it's short, but you get the gist of it.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_How dare he? _Rima thought. He'd stolen her best friend, the perfect jerk, and he asked her not to hate him? And of all things, he'd come across her crying.

This just wasn't fair. She'd get back at him. And she knew exactly how. It was low, but she'd be low to get her best friend back.

"Hey, Amu, let me tell you something interesting about Fujisaki."


	16. Friends

**So… hi?**

**This is completely inadequate, but… I'm sorry. Now, for the reasons I haven't updated my "main story" in over a month…**

**0 (yes, it's so important that it's a number zero). I can't blame my absence on this completely, but my computer started freaking out and started deleting all the formatting in my documents... if you can believe it. I have NO IDEA what I did. So now I have to manually put all the formatting back in every time I publish a chapter. And I wasn't exactly super enthusiastic about that, which also led to this being published at least three or four weeks after I would have otherwise. (I'm lazy.) So sorry if there are random formatting errors, but that's how it is.**

**1. I realized that my last chapter was horrible. I did make a big deal about it being horrible in the author's note, but only after I published it did I realize the TRUE EXTENT of its horribleness (quiet, you. That IS a word, along with "terribleness" and "badness" and "loathsomeness" and "stupid-stupider-stupidest" and basically every single word that could describe the last chapter). So I guess I just started hiding from you guys. And I can't promise this chapter will be any better, since my writing skills are really rusty from having to write record-breaking boring essays for school, and nothing else.**

**2. I got writer's block. I know, classic excuse, blah blah blah, so I'll make it more specific: I got of writer's block for this story (well, okay, not much better). Of course, that led to me having random, five-minute bursts of inspiration for random story ideas that just randomly popped up in my head in the middle of the night… and I can't remember any of them now.**

**3. I updated too fast, and burned myself out after… how many chapters is it again? I'm too lazy to check.**

**4. I have an unhealthy obsession with Naruto now, which is… better than Shugo Chara. Yeah, I'm just another fangirl hooked on Naruto when less than half a year ago I automatically assumed it sucked because it was shounen. But don't worry; I recently found out that I possess an inability to write fanfiction about a shounen action manga/anime series with lots of blood and dying. It just doesn't fit me. I prefer to write about an adorable chibi girl and a pretty purple-haired boy collecting sparkly diamonds under the command of the queen of the universe.**

**5. I can't think of anything anymore. I'm eating oranges right now, which slows my thought process until I'm drooling in front of the computer screen and mumbling, "Must… eat… another… one."**

**Well, I'd better stop rambling, or my temporary burst of inspiration is going to die away and I'll never finish the chapter. You don't have to review or anything, because I'd kind of deserve it if this got zero reviews, but try to enjoy this chapter. (To compensate for the long wait, there's major character development on Rima's part… well, the chapter's written almost fully in Rima's point of view, so I kind of had to include it or it would be a waste of an opportunity. And it's pretty long for something I wrote. I mean, I know other people write really long chapters, especially the super good and/or super dedicated authors… does that mean I'm not a super good/dedicated author? I really need to stop eating oranges now. You know you've eaten too many when the biggest tangerine slice you've ever eaten is as thick as your pinky is long.)**

* * *

Rima knew where and when she was as soon as she appeared in the memory – it had been five or six days before she'd made the wish, and she was in her house. The instant proof: she was staring at herself in her bathroom mirror, her eyes red from crying, and Amu was calling her name.

She would have blinked in surprise if she could. _She chose… this one? _Well, it shouldn't have been all that shocking, considering that the queen probably really, really liked to torture her (she certainly showed all the signs)

But…

No, Nagihiko wouldn't care – he never did, and the things she had done to him in the past would have been unforgivable, had she been him. But for some reason, she wasn't satisfied with this excuse, and her heart began to sink as she quickly dabbed on some makeup to hide the redness and walked down the stairs.

* * *

_"Are you okay?" Amu asked._

_"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" Despite everything that had happened today, she felt a smile dance across her face, before being replaced by her usual bland expression. Amu had come to see her, of her own free will, because she felt like it. It seemed like that never happened anymore, and it would be even better if she had canceled some appointment with a certain purple-haired nuisance to do it._

_"Well, Nagi said that you were crying, and that's never happened, so I just came to see if you were alright. Bye, Rima, I need to go now!" Amu gave her a quick smile and headed for the door, and Rima's face darkened. She wanted to call "Wait" to Amu's retreating back, but she couldn't._

_Before Nagihiko had come, she would never have been embarrassed about saying a simple word._

_Before Nagihiko had come, Amu would have stayed because she had nothing to do and chatted with Rima until she realized she needed to go home._

_Before Nagihiko had come, Rima would have readily complained to Amu about anyone and anything she hated. But now, she couldn't say anything about the one person she hated the most._

_Before Nagihiko had come, Amu wouldn't have known anything about Rima crying until she felt ready to tell her._

How dare he? _Rima thought. He'd stolen her best friend, the perfect jerk, and he asked her not to hate him? And of all things, he'd come across her crying._

_This just wasn't fair. She'd get back at him. And she knew exactly how. It was low, but she'd be low to get her best friend back._

_"Hey, Amu, let me tell you something interesting about Fujisaki."_

_That got her attention – too well, she thought._

_Amu tilted her head lightly at her, frowning. "Huh? What do you mean?"_

_"Um…" She bit her lip, thinking quickly, and settled on, "He's helping one of Tadase's fangirls get closer to him. You know, the one with the black hair that dragged you around school everywhere last year?" It wasn't really the most creative plan, but she was sure it would work._

_What she didn't expect was for Amu to turn around and give her a look that clearly signified betrayal. And as she began to speak, the only thing Rima could think, through the haze of emotions, was that she should be the one looking at Amu like that._

* * *

"Rima, that's not true. You know it."

The memories were worse than the challenges, she decided. In the challenges, she was free to make her own decisions. In the memories, she was trapped, being forced to make the same decisions she had regretted in the past. This had only been right before she'd made her wish, so why did she seem so childish now? So… stupid? Now, she thought that she should have realized Amu wouldn't believe her. Even at this point, she knew that she should have pretended it was a joke after Amu found her out.

And Nagihiko had been worried about her, which was why he had told…

Had she just defended Nagihiko in her mind?

But then, as she spoke, she recalled the fury welling up to the surface, after being suppressed for so long – just like what would happen a little less than a week later. "How do you know?" she protested, hearing the anger in her voice.

Anger. It was anger that had propelled her, anger that had made her act irrationally, anger that had brought about the vanishing of humankind…

Rima let herself speak, stopping the futile resistance she was giving and just allowing her own words to wash over her. "Why do you trust him so much? Why do you trust him more than me? Do you even care about me anymore?" An idea had begun to take hold in her mind, but she couldn't wrap her head around it. She sounded like an angry child. Angry… and bitter, and betrayed, and lonely, and… sad? Yes, she'd been sad.

She hadn't been able to admit it to herself before, and to her surprise, as she slowly let her brain digest it, she didn't feel that upset – whereas she would have been humiliated that something as pointless as a little bit of attention could make her feel sad before. _Yeah, I was sad. Sadness gives way to anger, doesn't it? That's what Amu said once. And I think I forgot it when I was yelling at her…_ When they'd first become friends over a comedy manga and a bit of embarrassment (well, it had been a big deal to her then, as she'd broken the "ice queen" image and laughed in front of the entire class), Amu had told her that all bad emotions came from either sadness or fear. Grief and betrayal were higher forms of sadness, although betrayal also stemmed from fear of betrayal in the first place, while nervousness was a lower form of fear. Hate came from wanting revenge, which also came from one of the two base "negative emotions" – sometimes both. Embarrassment was fear of the sadness that came from others' taunting.

And anger? Amu had said that anger was indescribable. Anger came from the fear of showing sadness, but it also came from humans' tendency to lash out at anyone in their way – a third emotion that channeled emotions into rash actions – and Rima realized now that Amu had been surprisingly wise. As good as Amu had been at explaining emotions, though, she had been clueless when it came to detecting them. The pain in Rima's voice was almost palpable, but Amu stepped back in surprise, just as she'd remembered, and said slowly, "Of course I care about you. Why wouldn't I? I came to see you."

"You came to see me because you were supposed to! Because if you didn't, you would basically be telling me you weren't my friend! And I don't get why you don't just tell me you're not my friend anymore. I notice you didn't say anything about your trusting Fujisaki more, so I guess that makes it true, huh?"

"Rima, what are you even talking about? I don't trust Nagi more, but he would never–"

"What? Would never do that? Even if I say so?" _It's almost over. She's going to leave, and the memory will end,_ Rima tried to tell herself. She wanted to get out. She never thought that the next time she'd see Amu's face would be in a memory like this. "And why do you call him Nagi?"  
_Hurry up and stop…_ And then,_ He's watching…_

* * *

_"And why do you call him Nagi?" Some rational part of her brain told her that when this all blew over, she would be more embarrassed than she'd ever been in her life. But now, she didn't care about how stupid or immature she sounded; she needed to get everything out before she snapped from the onslaught of emotions that had been raging in her mind for so long. "You call me Rima. You call Yaya, Tadase, and everyone else by their own names."_

_She looked utterly bewildered. To Rima's eyes, she looked like she was pretending she hadn't betrayed Rima in the worst way possible. "His name is long."_

_"I don't believe that it takes that much energy to say an extra two syllables. Don't you have something to do with him now? Just…" She clenched her fists by her sides, willing herself not to cry. "Just go away."_

_They remained silent. Rima had closed her eyes so she couldn't see Amu's expression. She didn't want to know what Amu looked like right now._

_She finally spoke, sounding hesitant. "Rima… I… don't get mad at me, but can we talk about this tomorrow?"_

Don't get mad at me. _Soft, pleading words. Ashamed, Rima nodded, eyes still closed._

_Amu left._

Don't cry, _she told herself._ You can't cry. _And suddenly, a bright, vivid picture flashed in front of her closed eyelids – long, bright blonde pigtails, violet eyes, mouth opened to say something that had never been said._

_Utau. Incomprehensible Utau. Bizarre Utau. Strange Utau, who had never told her why, after stealing her gym clothes and hating her for half a school year, she had done the strangest thing anyone around Rima had ever done._

You didn't cry then. You told yourself you wouldn't cry anymore, and you cried in the science room, even though you didn't cry then. You can't cry now. You can't cry anymore.

_Rima opened her eyes._

_She didn't cry._

* * *

The queen, apparently deciding to be nice, had made them switch immediately, so they'd had no time to see each other before Nagihiko's memory. Right after everything turned black, Rima was in the white place with the screen. Her relief quickly turned to dread when she realized she'd have to face him later, but before her thought process could go any farther, his memory started.

She realized with a jolt that she was with Nagihiko. They were in her house.

When had she ever invited Nagihiko to her house? But as her eyes fell on a piece of poster board in front of him, she remembered. They'd been paired up for a project for a few days, but for some reason, they had been separated and put with different people. She hadn't really thought about it since.

It was strange to see her younger self on a screen, especially since she knew what would happen – but perhaps not the full details. After all, she'd treated him normally… had she? She couldn't remember; this had been more than a year ago, about two months after she'd met and started hating him.

Maybe she hadn't treated him normally. After all, there had to be a reason why this one was being shown to her – the queen, after all, was easily the most sadistic per… supernatural being… she had ever met. (Though she'd only met one.)

And as her younger self began to speak, she started remembering what had happened.

* * *

_"Hurry up and get on with it, will you?" She put as much scorn into her voice as possible. "How does a stupid project like this take so long?"_

_"Sure," he said absently, bent over the piece of poster board. He stared at it intently and began to write again, not seeming to mind at all that she had basically dumped the entire project on him. She wanted him to mind. She wanted him to get angry. But he didn't even look like he was paying attention, and now he was making her angry._

_"You've been at it for two hours. Hurry up."_

_"Mm."_

_"I was going to each lunch, but because you're so slow, I have to wait here. I don't trust you with the project alone."_

_"Great."_

_"You're annoying."_

_"Okay."_

_"Your writing is crooked."_

_"Huh?" Nagihiko looked up at her – for the first time, much to her frustration. He glanced back at the poster. "It looks fine to me."_

_"You're an idiot," she stated flatly. "I was lying."_

_He stared at her blankly for a second, before relief spread across his face. "Oh, that's good, Rima-san."_

_"Don't you dare call me by my first name!"_

_"Alright." And there he went, back to working on the project and basically ignoring her again._

_She twitched. "I'm going to the bathroom," she snapped, furious and completely ignoring that she'd said he couldn't be trusted with the poster a minute ago, and walked out._

* * *

Rima was stunned.

Had she really changed that much in a single year? Even to her – and she was almost as bad as detecting others' emotions as Amu – Nagihiko's annoyance was hideously obvious, almost as obvious as hers had been. The stiffness of his body as he tried to act relaxed, his narrowed eyes glaring daggers at the project… and she was pretty sure he had come close to standing up and walking out when she'd lied about his writing. Instead, he'd pretended – and the falseness of that was obvious too – to believe her, and to be relieved when he'd found out she had been lying.

And he'd been ignoring her on purpose, to annoy her back.

All this time, she'd taken for granted that he had been trying to get on her good side ever since they'd met, but now she could see that wasn't true at all. _If I hated him then, he definitely hated me just as much. Except he was trying to hide it, while I was making it obvious to get him mad._

_You mean, if you hate him, not if you hated him._ But the voice was feeble now, and she pushed it aside to think about something else.

He didn't show annoyance like that now, when he had before. If she had gotten better at detecting emotions, did that mean he didn't hate her as much, and didn't show signs that she could pick up on? He had called her "Rima-san", after all. (When had he changed from "san" to "chan"? She couldn't remember at all.) But there was a more probable explanation, which was that he had gotten better at acting too. Was he still pretending not to hate her, when he actually did? What proof was a changed suffix? It wasn't like she had been any less of a jerk over time, even if she had been more perceptive.

What she couldn't figure out was why that thought bothered her.

Her questions would be answered soon enough.

* * *

_As soon as she left, Nagihiko let out an aggravated sigh, standing up and looking at the project like he actually cared about its quality._

_He didn't. He had over a hundred percent in this subject, anyway, and seeing as he'd been working diligently on it for two hours (mainly because he had been trying to ignore one irritating Rima Mashiro), it was good enough to sustain his grade until the next major test._

_His thoughts strayed back to… her._

_He had no earthly idea why she hated him so much. When they had met, she'd looked at him with a bland expression on her face, and then the next day, she'd tried to provoke him whenever she had the chance. And two months later, long after his confusion had turned into frustration, it was still going on. Who could blame him?_

_He wouldn't say he hated her for hating him – it wasn't as simple as that. Saaya had hated him, and he'd accepted it. So it wasn't even that Rima hated him, it was that she hated him for no evident reason, and he couldn't stand being hated if he hadn't done anything wrong. His natural instinct was to hate her back._

_He was tolerant, but he was human._

_Rima's mother entered the room, startling him out of his thoughts. "Do you need anything?" he asked politely. "Rima-san is –"_

_"I'd prefer you not call her by her first name."_

_Her voice was cold, and Nagihiko's expression changed from respectful to bewildered. "I'm sorry?"_

_She got to the point. "Why does my daughter hate you?"_

_"I –"_

_"Give me a reasonable answer. She doesn't hate people for no reason, and you honestly seem like a nice kid. What did you do to her?"_

_"I don't know," he objected, all pretenses of politeness gone. "Ever since the second day we met, she's acted like I'm some kind of germ. If I knew, I would have fixed it by now."_

_It wasn't the right answer. Her eyes hardened._

_"Go," she said._

_He had no choice but to leave._

* * *

She felt numb.

That explained a lot. She'd come back, into the room, and her mom had told her that he had something to do. So she'd settled for looking the project over and admitting to herself that not only was it already over half-completed (they'd been given two months to do it), it was better than anything she could have done herself.

Her mom had driven him out. She wished she had come back earlier from her trip to the bathroom – even someone like the person she was a year ago would have stopped him from leaving, right?

The only thing she could do, though, was watch the screen-Nagihiko leaving her house, emotions she had never even imagined associating with him blazing in his eyes.

* * *

_The one good thing about getting kicked out of Rima's house was that he had the rest of the afternoon free, and since he didn't have anything planned, he could just relax for the first time that week. So later that afternoon, he happened to see Amu at the park._

_Amu was one of his best friends now, the other being her crush Tadase. Since he'd been mildly famous before he'd moved, and was now notorious, he had wanted to keep a low profile and not make too many friends in case one of them found out about Nadeshiko and saw their similarities. But even if Amu found out, he doubted she would tell anyone or hold that against him – she was, if a little clueless sometimes, the best friend someone could have._

_And even better, her blonde shadow wasn't with her right now, and wouldn't be butting in anytime soon. So Nagihiko waved. "Hey, Amu-chan!"_

_Amu blinked, and then grinned back. "Hey, Nagi!" She ran over to him. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be working on a project with Rima?"_

_Nagihiko considered lying, but what would be the point? "Rima-san's mom kicked me out."_

_"What?" Amu's eyes widened. "Why? What did you do?"_

_He suddenly felt uncomfortable. Rima had been Amu's friend longer than he had; what would she do if he told her it was because Rima hated him? "She… she's noticed that Rima-san hates me." It carefully implied that Rima hating him was obvious and not unexpected._

_Nagihiko had expected her to be surprised, saying, "Rima hates you?" But instead, she sighed. "Yeah, about that… why does Rima hate you so much anyway? I mean, she doesn't hate people for no reason. I wish she could get along with you."_

_"That's what her mom said too." He couldn't help glaring at the ground as he continued. "Why does she hate me? You've been her friend longer than I've known her, and you've seen how we've acted towards each other." He looked up and mumbled, "I don't want to be hated for no reason. I wish I could fix it more than you do."_

_Amu stared ahead, not looking at him yet not really avoiding his gaze. "If you don't want to be hated, make friends with her."_

_"Huh?"_

_"I did it." She met his eyes. "You can. You know, I used to think I made friends with her by finding out one of her secrets and giving her an entire pep talk about it. The first day we met, she was as cold to me as she is to everyone else. But it wasn't just about the pep talk, it was that no matter how much she tried to push me away, I was still as friendly to her as ever. So maybe you could try that."_

_"Amu-chan, you're different. I don't think I can pull that off. I'm bound to –"_

_She just smiled. "I'll help you. Start by calling her Rima-chan."_

_He would remember that as the day he began desperately trying – and still failing – to make friends with Rima Mashiro._

_Because Amu suggested it. Because Rima wouldn't annoy him anymore. These were the reasons he supplied himself with. But the true reason was buried deep within him, bound to his heart and the life of Nadeshiko he had left behind._

_Because this would only be the second time someone had hated him._

_Because he didn't want to be hated._

* * *

When they appeared back in the park – the same park Amu and Nagihiko had met, Rima realized – she was frozen from shock. Her thoughts swirled around in her brain, getting mixed up and creating chaos that had no room for commands to move her body.

_Nagihiko saw me freaking out to Amu. My mom kicked Nagihiko out of the house. I tried to lie to Amu about Nagihiko. I acted like an idiot. I've acted like an idiot since I met him._

_Nagihiko used to hate me._

_He was making friends with me for Amu's sake, and because he didn't want to be hated, not because he was a goody-goody._

_I really, really, really didn't know Nagihiko at all._

"Hey, Rima-chan?"

She didn't know how she would react if she looked up at him. So she kept her eyes down, staring at her lap.

"Sorry."

Her head snapped up. He smiled, but it was more sheepish than anything else. "I guess back then, I was kind of a –"

"Why are you so nice to me now? Amu's not here. I know now that you started out like that because Amu asked you to. Did you really care that much about people hating you?" Her eyes narrowed.

He didn't seem to be put off by the sudden question; on the contrary, he seemed to have expected it. "You want the truth, right?" he asked, smile vanishing, eyes serious.

She wasn't sure now. "Yeah."

"Now… I want to, I guess."

Her mouth dropped open. "What?"

He flinched. "N-no, I mean… that's not it… first, it was because of Amu. Then, when Amu disappeared… I actually thought about just dropping the act, before I kind of realized… well…"

"Realized what?"

"I can't. It's too much of a habit."

She stared at him.

"I wanted the truth, Fujisaki."

"No, wait, that's not it either! It's just… I don't know, I was going to stop trying to be friends. I mean, we had that fight before I went to find out the clues on the piece of paper." He began ranting, obviously flustered. "Then, when you came to get me and I was passed out on Amu's doorstep, I thought that I should try to keep the peace… you know, for the sake of getting humankind back? Then, I saw your first memory with that blonde girl, and I really didn't think much of it, but you were upset" – Rima's face flushed – "so I decided to comfort you, which I'm really bad at because it freaks me out when girls cry. No offense," he added hurriedly. "And I actually thought that maybe I was making progress – I mean, I told myself I was making friends with you because of Amu before, but I guess I kept the mindset. That's why I said it was a habit a few seconds before. I know it doesn't make sense, but it kind of became my goal after knowing you for a year. But after that, you started acting the same, so I got mad and pulled the 'Why do you hate me' thing. Then, you told me it was because of Amu and me being perfect, and then I had no idea why you would think that, so I made you see my memory with Saaya to show you. Then, you said it didn't matter, so I got mad again – sorry – and you left, and I think I remembered a time when you and Amu were talking, and you looked really happy, but when I came it looked like you had switched places with someone and you started acting… well… like how you usually act again, and I remembered how you said it was because of Amu, and I pieced together that you were… jealous… of me? And I thought that maybe we could start over because I really don't want you to hate me because of that, and… that's it. I'm sorry about Amu."

Her brain went over his spiel, and she looked down, guiltily remembering how she'd treated him before. "You still want to be friends with me? Even after that?"

"Even after what?" For a second, she thought he was being sarcastic, but his eyes were sincere.

And brown.

She didn't know him.

"I'm sorry…" And she exhaled so quietly that he could barely hear it, "Nagihiko." Louder, "I didn't know you." Rima shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal, but everything she wanted to say rested in those words. _Thank you for not hating me after I've wanted to strangle you for a year for something you didn't even do._

He tilted his head to the side slightly, showing his confusion, but seemed to realize that he wouldn't get a proper answer if he asked. So he said the only thing he could think of. "Friends?"

She laughed – there was no mirth in the sound, just pure relief. They were starting over. After so long, they were starting over, and despite the fact that humankind was wiped off the face of the earth and they were only at the halfway point in getting everyone back, she was finally happy. "Friends."

* * *

**Ruining the moment: Believe me, they are NOT at the halfway point because the queen is evil and I can't possibly make them fall in love within the time they need to get four diamonds. You'll see what happens.**

**Um… okay, so as I was writing this, I started thinking of a bunch of possible questions you could have about things that might not make sense, and I was planning to answer them all in this author's note, but that would take too long and I can't remember half of them anyway. So if you're really confused about anything at all, ask in a review. (YES, REVIEW! Okay, never mind.) But seriously, if you have any questions, and I don't blame you (when I reread this, even I got confused for a second), then review and I promise I'll PM you back and try to answer all of them. And if you write a guest review, I'll answer in the first author's note for the next chapter. Even though I personally think it's kind of annoying when you're reading a good story with lots of reviews and have to scroll down past all the replies for them – nobody gets that many guest reviews (I think), and there IS a Private Messaging feature. Though I admit that I don't even reply to reviews at all unless they ask questions. I'm sorry. I love you guys in a totally platonic way, but… I'm just too lazy. I DO read the reviews, though, and they DO make me happy (especially if they're nice and long and full of ego-stroking XD).**

**I swear I wrote so much in one shot that my brain doesn't work properly anymore. Hence the one-line preview that isn't completely accurate. All my other previews are accurate – this one, though, is just getting the gist of the chapter. Hint if you're weirded out by that one: if I can't make them fall in love after they get four diamonds, I can't make them fall in love after they get two diamonds. And seriously, it fit perfectly because I couldn't think of any more "epic" memories for Nagi, and even when I delete his challenges, I still need to think up another one for Rima's last memory.**

**Bye, and… oh, wait. Never mind. No asking for reviews. Just… bye. No… bye! Technical awkwardness difficulties.**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"I have changed my mind. Your two remaining challenges and memories, Fujisaki Nagihiko, will be traded for a more difficult challenge that will take place when Mashiro Rima has collected her remaining diamonds." Although her expression didn't change, there was a strange gleam behind those normally impassive eyes, and Nagihiko was honestly scared for his life._


	17. Utau Hoshina

_ALERT ALERT ALERT: I fixed the ugly formatting/spacing curse that struck my last chapter. I honestly didn't even realize it had happened – I blame it on the formatting issues I told you about before. Hopefully it's readable now. And hopefully at least a couple of the people who ditched this story because of it will come back._

**I went through an internal battle upon starting this chapter: should I make this a filler chapter or not? If I did, then it would allow me to add a little bit of fluff (which is super cute unless it has too much sugar), kind of experiment with Rima and Nagihiko's current relationship, and maybe make some edits if things got too awkward or OOC. On the other hand, my readers would be bored to death if I did that. Seriously. THEY WOULD ALL DIE. Their souls would wilt a little, at least, since almost EVERYONE is craving for something more interesting/action-filled to happen by now. And death isn't the best apology for a two-month-long wait, so I decided to go with the "okay-let's-get-these-freaking-diamonds-over-with" route. (Once the diamonds and angst that comes along with it are over with, we can get to the romance… but I'm not going to spoil anything anymore, so I won't tell you what will happen or why or how…) My point is, if you start aching for some fluff because they just agreed to be friends and it's a turning point, think, "It's for my own sake. Emerald Tide wants to preserve my sanity."**

**You know the guy with the queen who always calls her "Your Highness" and who I always reference as "he"? He hasn't appeared for a few chapters, and it's gotten to the point where even I forgot about him (even though he is pretty important later, seriously), so I think it's time to bring him back.**

**Also, for the preview, I changed the manner in which Nagihiko finds out about his canceled challenges/memories. Told you it wasn't exact. Anyway, I really need to stop using the middle of the night as a time for epic things to happen. (And I really need to stop eating string cheese. At least oranges are healthy.)**

**Random grammar tip: SO MANY PEOPLE think that "bemused" means "amused". I'm sick of seeing this mistake in fanfics. "Bemused" does NOT mean "amused" just because they sound the same. "Bemused" means "confused". "Bemused" is, "Huh?" Not, "Ha ha ha". I'm going to use the word in this chapter, in a really obvious manner. WATCH AND LEARN.**

**Getting on with said chapter… **

* * *

It was midnight (again), and Rima could not sleep. Ominous silence shrouded her like a fog; she wanted to scream and break it, but Nagihiko would wake up.

She knew what her next two memories would be. Although she had repeatedly processed the information in her brain for hours, it really was simple. They were her two worst memories. The queen would save them for last.

Her worst memory would be next. The other one didn't make sense without knowing the first.

Heart pounding, she sat up and got out of bed. She moved softly down the stairs, prayed that Nagihiko wouldn't wake up before she was back, and left the house.  
Sometime later, she sat down on the bench and disappeared.

* * *

Even with her eyes closed, she felt the queen's strange glow, penetrating into her mind and body. "Yes?"

She opened her eyes and looked up at the queen. "You know what I want. You can read minds, right? You're the queen."

"No. I rule this universe, but I am afraid to say that human minds outdo me."

_I doubt it._ "Why do you look like Voldemort? And how can you feel so beautiful and look so ugly at the same time?" Rima asked boldly. It wasn't her real question, after all, and she didn't think that the queen of the universe would be that sensitive about her physical features.

"Do you want me to change my appearance?" she asked mildly. Her face and body began to melt and reform. Rima took a tiny step back; she stared at a perfect copy of herself, completely unchanged except that she was still radiating that same aura that made her seem utterly beautiful.

The queen changed back, still expressionless, to her Voldemort form. "My opinions are different from the opinions of humans. They are all ugly to me."

"So you think Voldemort is beautiful?" It was so strange to be having this conversation with the queen.

"The most beautiful thing that can be recognized as even partly human. What was your real question?"

"Didn't you say that you couldn't read minds?"

"You would never come out at this hour to talk about this."

She winced. _Right. She's not stupid._ "Don't do the memory with Utau. Please." The last syllable slipped out of Rima's lips before she had a chance to stop it.

"I choose your memories."

"Yes, but –" Rima stopped herself. "You're going to show it, aren't you? No matter what?" She could feel the undertone of fear trembling under her voice, like the calm before the storm was ending and everything was going to explode.

"Yes."

"Don't make me relive it, then. I don't care if he sees, and I don't care if I have to watch with him with my eyelids magically glued open, but don't make me do it again."

"I will not make exceptions."

Everything exploded. "You can't make me relive it!" she screamed. "You're the queen of the universe! You have to know how I feel! Do you just enjoy watching people suffer?" _Wars. Abuse. Death. Look at the state the world is in. Of course she does._ "You don't deserve to be queen! How could you know how I feel about what I did and –"

"I have no idea how you feel." Rima would have been even more furious at the denial, but there was faint negativity in that usually cool, sometimes amused voice, and she stopped.

"You're the queen." Her voice was hoarse from shouting.

"I told you that human minds outdo me. If there is one thing I am inexperienced in, it is in understanding human emotion." The queen paused, as if contemplating. "I will take away your challenge, I suppose. And the rest of Nagihiko Fujisaki's challenges and memories. But in return…"

"Huh? Nagihiko's? And I don't care about the challenge; I'm talking about –"

"In return, you will travel." And everything disappeared, melting into the park around her.

Rima blinked once. Twice. Three times.

Then, she stood up and screamed.

* * *

"Your Highness?"

She looked at him.

"Are you angry, Your Highness?"

"I have never known anger." She paused. "Am I angry?"

"Yes, Your Highness, because she said that you knew how she felt. But just barely – not on the same level as any other human."

"Foolish." The queen kept her cold appearance, but on the inside, she was exploring the feeling that she now knew was anger. So this was it. This was what all the humans knew and talked about, so different – now that she knew – from the facial expressions humans made.

It disappeared, and she was left with a hollow lack of feeling again, save for the tiny glimmer of surprise that seemed to have been added into the list of emotions she could feel at all – boredom and amusement.

And perhaps anger.

It was unbelievable.

It was a single emotion.

It was a single emotion that she now understood better after feeling for a second than she would have if she had continued watching it for another billion years. If only she could feel everything, her experiments would be completed. She would be able to understand humans. She would be able to control them.

She would be able to stop any human murderer from shooting any human girl. She would be able to make each and every one of them believe in magic, and she would be able to play a role in the human world without throwing it into chaos.

But there was no guarantee that she would ever feel any more emotion than this. She had to settle for watching her two current guinea pigs.

She would be on the lookout for anger.

* * *

Hours passed as Rima sat on the bench in a stupor. By the time she had finally dragged herself home, her throat hurt and the sun was rising.

She felt like she was going to be tortured to within an inch of her life (maybe she was). Worse still, she had to pick the date, and keep the disappearance of humankind in mind.

Unable to control her body while she relived her worst memory – how had it come down to this?

And yet, at the same time, she knew that if she were brought back to that moment in time before she had screamed her wish and given a chance to change the outcome, she still would have wished for humankind to disappear. It was one of those things that were controlled by emotion. Her emotions hadn't changed. She was still angry.

She hated that about herself the most. And it hurt.

Nagihiko was still asleep when she got back, so she went up to her room and tried to fall asleep too.

* * *

"Rima-chan!" Nagihiko called, waking her up.

Said Rima-chan had gotten exactly thirty-five minutes and forty-eight seconds of sleep. "What?" she groaned. "What time is it?" Her head spun like crazy. She needed to fall back asleep.

"The queen wants us to go to the bench. She says she has something to tell us about the diamonds."

"Then let her tell you through your head. Works pretty well when she wants to summon us to the stupid bench. Walking there and back takes up over an hour of valuable time I could be using to sleep." She rolled over, yawned, and immediately fell asleep again before he could protest.

_Your Majesty, she's… asleep again. Could you just tell me through your head, please?_

_Alright, then. She knows what I am about to say anyway._

_What? How?_

_She visited me in the middle of the night. I have changed my mind. Your two remaining challenges and diamonds will be traded for a more difficult challenge that will take place when she has collected her remaining diamonds._

_What – _

The queen was gone. He rubbed his forehead, utterly bemused. Why would the queen change his challenges? Was it really on a whim? It didn't make any sense.

It didn't make any sense at all, which meant that the queen had something planned.

Bemusement changed to fear, and Nagihiko was honestly scared for his life.

* * *

She woke up a few hours later, feeling nice and refreshed, went downstairs, and was immediately confronted by Nagihiko.

"The queen said that you visited her in the middle of the night."

Rima was only thrown off for a second. "Yeah, I did. She told you that you get to skip your challenges, right? And apparently, we travel in return. I didn't get that part."

"Travel? She just said that I would get a more difficult challenge."

"Then I guess the challenge has something to do with traveling." Rima shrugged. "Can't imagine where, though."

"Why did you visit her last night?"

She stayed silent.

"Rima-chan?"

"I asked her to change my next memory. I knew what it was. There's only one memory that could go next. But she said no. She took away my challenge, though." It was time to choose now. Time to choose when. "Let's go."

"Go?"

"If I can't make the queen change her mind, I might as well get it over with, right?" Rima smiled wryly. "Besides, I'll just make myself sick dreading it. Let's go."

And as she walked away, Nagihiko stared at her, wide-eyed. He'd finally realized something.

She had changed.

In less than a month, she had changed.

Smiling slightly, he followed her.

* * *

They were at the bench. "Are you okay?" Nagihiko asked quietly. Rima's face was pale, her eyes staring blankly off into the distance.

She forced herself out of her daze. "Yeah," she mumbled. "Fine."

"You don't have to do this now."

"I have to."

"Why?"

"I told you, I'm going to dread it forever if I don't." And she sat down.

* * *

Nagihiko knew something was wrong when he didn't find himself in the blank, white place he'd been in before. Instead, he was in the room with the queen, like he had intended to talk with her. Rima was nowhere to be seen. "Y-Your Majesty?" he stammered. "Why am I here? Where's Rima-chan?"

"She is doing her challenge. This was the only suitable place I could think to keep you."

"But she said she didn't have a challenge, Your Majesty, and that it was what you decided after she asked you to…" Nagihiko froze. "You lied to her?"

"Yes. Her challenge is interwoven with reliving this specific memory. Of course, I could not just let the chance go by. It was also better that she did not know this. If she passes, you will see her memory and it will be over."

He couldn't speak. Seeing the look on his face, the queen added, "There is nothing to worry about. She will want to do it."

"Do… what?"

"The challenge."

* * *

Memories washed over her with painful clarity.

She wanted to close her eyes.

* * *

_There was a note in Rima's locker, and for once, it wasn't a love letter. It said:_

Two blocks away from the school, past the park, in that direction.

_Curiosity overtook her. Why would there just be a location? Was it another fan too shy to say anything direct in the note? She stuffed it in her bag, closed her locker, and set out in the opposite direction of her house. Nothing bad could come out of meeting a fan, albeit a strange one._

_Two blocks away, however, was a deserted street. Frowning, she decided that it was a prank and turned back._

_Something hit her on the head._

_She fell._

* * *

_"Hey."_

_She woke up, and immediately began to panic. This wasn't right. Her arms and legs were tied tightly together, and she was sitting against a cold wall in a dark room – maybe a basement – and a man was in front of her._

_It took a second for her foggy brain to figure everything out._

_She had been kidnapped. Sensing the lack of a gag, she screamed, and the man quickly covered her mouth with his hand. "Hey," he hissed. "I'm trying to help you."_

_She stopped, but discovered that the fear coursing throughout her body had stopped her voice. She couldn't produce anything but shrill screams._

_"I'm going to rescue you," he said in an undertone. "You've been captured. Don't scream, or you'll wake your kidnappers. Just tell me your address, and I'll untie these ropes and get you back home."_

_Rima found her voice then. "The kid-kidnappers, they – they w-want a ransom. They'll need to send a note to my h-house." The words skidded out half-formed, incomprehensible even to her own ears._

_The slight narrowing of the man's eyes told her that he was definitely not going to help her. "Yes," he said carefully._

_"Y-you want my address. You're not going to help me. You kidnapped me."_

_Suddenly, she was grabbed by the shoulder, and a knife was shoved to her neck. She swallowed, and it shifted ever so slightly back and forth. Her heart was being so quickly that her chest hurt. "Tell me where you live, little girl."_

_She wanted to reply._

_She couldn't. She had lost her voice again._

_He dropped the knife. "I give up," he snapped to himself. "Kids are so stupid. Let her do it."_

_Rima had barely begun to wonder who this "her" was when, as if on cue, the door to the basement opened, and a voice called, "I stole a baby, and I have his address. The bathroom trick worked per –"_

_She broke off, staring at Rima in shock. Finally, she said disbelievingly, "That was your locker?"_

_Rima thought she was hallucinating._

_Rima hoped she was hallucinating._

_The person at the door couldn't be who she thought it was…_

_Utau, holding a small, sleeping baby in her arms._

* * *

_"What? You know this girl?" the man asked. "Well, I should have expected it, since you wouldn't be conscientious enough to try and enter any other school than the one you go to. She's going to say it's you if we release her. We'll have to move again." His eyes flickered to Rima, indicating an obvious lie. Were they going to try and kill her after they got her address?_

_"Utau," she whispered. "Help me."_

_"Make her tell you her address, and hurry up. Don't wake the baby up. What's his address? It's a he, right?"_

_"Yeah." Utau mumbled a number, street, and city. "I had to go pretty far, so I used up all the money you gave me, but I think the taxi guy asked me for a few extra dollars."_

_"It doesn't matter," the man said dismissively. "Now get the address. It's late, so I'm going to bed. Oh, and use this just in case she refuses." He tossed the knife at her. She squeaked and ran aside, still holding the baby, and he laughed and slammed the door behind her._

_They were alone. Utau took a shaky breath, picked up the knife, and moved closer to Rima, who had fallen silent. "Mashiro?"_

_"You two kidnap people?"_

_"Rima." She used Rima's first name, and she looked up. "Just tell me your address. If you do, this will all blow over, and your parents will just have to pay some money. If you don't, you'll stay here. Father doesn't care how long you have to stay here, and you won't get any food or water." Her voice was surprisingly gentle and coaxing. Like a salesman trying to get her to buy a broken toy._

_He was her father. No wonder. "Let me out of here! How could you do this?"_

_Utau looked away. "We need money. We've always needed money. Father can't get a job. And… people will pay any sum of money to get their children back."_

_"So you kidnap babies? With some… bathroom trick?"_

_Utau clutched the baby tighter, voice growing soft. "The bathroom trick. Go onto a street far away from your home, ask a bunch of people there if you can use their bathroom, and you'll eventually find a __household with a baby and preferably many more young children. It's surprisingly easy to steal something invaluably precious if you can find the right moment. With many children, the parents will be busy. There was just one other girl this time, but she was a handful. It doesn't always work, but you can just run if they catch you."_

_Rima wanted to throw up. "Let me go."_

_Utau set the baby down on the floor and grabbed the knife, her arm shaking. "Tell me your address," she said, her voice a harsh, yet almost fearful whisper._

_"You wouldn't dare use that thing," Rima breathed, trying to bring her usual school façade back on and to convince herself of what she was saying. "You're scared. You're trembling."_

_Her eyes hardened. "You should be the one that's scared." And she slashed down._

_Rima screamed. A dark line of blood snaked down her left arm._

_Utau was willing to hurt her._

_She had never been hurt before._

_She snapped. Suddenly, fear and pain took over, and she was screaming out her address and phone number and everything she could think of. "Let me go! Leave me alone!"_

_"Mashiro –"_

_"Go away!"_

_Utau left, glancing back once over her shoulder, face unreadable._

_The baby, left on the floor, woke up and began to wail. Panting, Rima inched herself slowly towards the baby. Wet blood was still trickling out of her arm, and some of it smeared on her school uniform._

_"It's okay," she called quietly, but found her voice trembling._

You can't cry. You have to stay calm. For the baby. The baby is crying enough for the both of you.

Don't cry.

_"It's okay," she murmured, her voice more stable. The baby stopped, and looked up at her blearily._

_"What's your name, baby?" What was she spouting? "Who are you? Are you scared too?"_

_"Shoo…"_

_Her eyes widened; the baby was speaking. "Shoo? What does that mean?"_

_"Shoo…"_

_"Baby?"_

_"Bah…"_

_"What are you trying to say?"_

_"Shun." The baby smiled and closed its eyes._

_"Hey? Baby?"_

_It was asleep. "Was it making baby noises?" she muttered. She needed to focus on something else besides the pain in her arm and the fear that she would never get out, and the baby was the only thing in this place to focus on. "Shoo-shoo-bah-shun?" She couldn't let her mind wander back to where she was and the condition she was in, or she would really freak out. But there was nothing to think about._

_Something like desperation made Rima fall asleep._

* * *

The last time she had been through this, it had seemed like hours when the police had come, even though she had slept for a while. This time, though, it seemed like barely a minute.

Her parents were there, grabbing her, sobbing out how glad they were that she was safe, saying that they needed to patch up her wounded arm immediately. She felt herself hug them back and whisper, "How did you find me?"

Her mom's eyes clouded over slightly, just like she remembered. "Your kidnapper's daughter called the police."

Meaning Utau. Utau had called the police for her. Utau had turned her own father in.

Utau had saved her and the baby, and ruined her and her father's lives to do so, and she had no idea why. And she had never asked.

It would happen again. And suddenly, Rima was filled with a panic she had never felt before, not even during the kidnapping. She would meet Utau's eyes as the police dragged the latter away. She would want to ask why Utau had done something like that for her.

And she would never know. She would live her life wondering why, never able to let that one incident go, because she didn't know why. Because it didn't make any sense.

She would let Utau leave all over again.

She would make the worst mistake of her life all over again.

And it happened. She turned around and met Utau's eyes as she was dragged away.

No.

No, it couldn't happen again. She wouldn't let it happen again. If it happened again, she wouldn't be able to live with herself.

It could not happen again.

Rima lost all grasp on sensible thought. Forgot that the queen was ruling this. Forgot that she couldn't move.

It could not happen again.

A scream ripped through her throat, and she wrenched herself from her parents' grasp and grabbed Utau from the stunned police's arms. They ran.

She was in control of her body, and she didn't know why. But for now, she would get answers.

* * *

The queen smiled.

"Let the challenge begin."

* * *

**I know you don't get it. I know I'm terrible at writing fear. Well, sorry I've never been kidnapped…**

**Wrote too much in one shot again (namely whole chapter). Cannot write proper author's note. Must save two remaining brain cells for preview.**

**Didn't know what to put for preview. Preview is lame and not really useful due to lack of brain cells. Is accurate, though, unlike last one. (I also know first sentence sounds wrong/perverted. Sorry. Maybe is just me.)**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_Rima pushed Utau against the wall, eyes blazing furiously. "Tell me the truth," she hissed. "Why did you save me? You're going to be punished for this. You helped your dad. And your dad will definitely be punished." She felt a thrill of exhilaration. Finally, after all this time, Utau was going to tell her. She was going to make sure Utau told her._

_Utau opened her mouth to speak. "I did it because –" But right at that moment, everything went dark around Rima._

_She felt her eyes close._


	18. True Rima

**First off, I apologize for any formatting mistakes (i.e.: thoughts not italicized, random things bolded when they're not supposed to be). Formatting problem still hasn't disappeared, and I don't think it will anytime soon. I'm being meticulous, though. I hate errors in my chapters.**

**Note to self: Never EVER slack off again, or you will have an extremely hard time with trying to write once more. Sorry. I've been sick. Seriously. No lie. I know the challenge is possibly one of the shortest and least dramatic things I've ever written with an opportunity to make it dramatic, but…**

**ME: Drama drama drama sick of drama puking drama no more drama Vanished Vanished drama drama DIE.**

**You know, I don't even think "drama" should be a possible category when publishing a fanfiction, because every story worth reading – besides parodies, that is – has so much drama that the author eventually can't hold it all in his/her brain and begins to urinate it. (No, seriously. I'm kidding. But you get the point, don't you?) I mean, drama is great for reading and all (it always is), and there are some people who also love writing it, but me? AUGH. NUUUUUUOOOOOOOOO. It takes too much effort (I can sit for hours in front of the computer just complaining to myself about the scene and eating string cheese) and temporarily drains my ability to write non-dramatic scenes (such as fluff, which everyone loves). Don't worry, though, I still love this story and will finish it no matter what.**

**I've planned out the entire story of Vanished already in my head, and I can say for a FACT that there will be LOTS more torturous drama up ahead, so for those of you who enjoy drama and are disappointed with this challenge…**

**Please. Give it a rest. There will be so much drama later that its glittery lavender flames will ignite in my brain and burn it to ashes.**

**Unrelated topic: Does anybody think that parallelism (you know, in English grammar, for a series of events and things like that?) is the most annoying thing ever? I learned it a few months ago (and believe it or not, it wasn't even in my normal school, it was in an extra writing class. I blame the school), and now I realize that I've been making these mistakes my ENTIRE LIFE. It's kind of shocking when I look at the things I wrote before I learned it and notice a bunch of these mistakes. It's even more shocking when I catch myself making a bunch of them in my current writing pieces. Microsoft Word isn't catching any of these mistakes for me, either. It marks this sentence as correct:**

**Nagihiko likes tea, milk, and shopping for nasty vegetables.**

**It doesn't do ANYTHING to that sentence despite the horrifyingly blatant mistake. Yet whenever I write, say, a "fragment", which at least half of the amazing authors in this world use at least five times a chapter, it marks it as incorrect. This sentence has a green squiggly line under it:**

**Nasty vegetables.**

**Meanwhile, fragments are viewed as "okay" in books because they create drama (drama drama drama) while ugly parallelism mistakes are not. Wait, was that a parallelism mistake? Did the adjective "ugly" affect the correctness of the sentence? It seems okay, but maybe I should put an adjective in front of "fragments", too, just in case? Suddenly, I have to go through this…**

**AUGH. SO ANNOYING.**

**Ugh. I'm just gonna shut up and let you read the chapter.**

* * *

They ran. Rima didn't know when it was when they stopped, in an alley where she was sure they wouldn't be found.

"Why are you doing this? They'll suspect you."

"Was it you who told the police that we were here?"

Utau paused, her face clouded with suspicion, but she answered honestly – well, Rima thought that she answered honestly. "Yes."

She could tell that she was losing her chance, from the narrowing of the other girl's eyes, but she had to ask. "What happened to the baby?"

"I told the police the address. He's being returned. Did you drag me here just to interrogate me? Because I'm going to get an extra earful of that when we get back."

"Why did you turn yourself in? And your dad?"

"I got bored of nothing happening." Her eyes took on a strange quality that Rima could not immediately place. She shook it off.

Rima pushed Utau against the wall, eyes blazing furiously. "Tell me the truth," she hissed. "Why did you save me? You're going to be punished for this. You helped your dad. And your dad will definitely be punished." She felt a thrill of exhilaration. Finally, after all this time, Utau was going to tell her. She was going to make sure Utau told her.

Utau opened her mouth to speak. "Fine, I did it because –" But right at that moment, everything went dark around Rima.

She felt her eyes close, and realized what the darkness meant – the challenge was over. By then, though, she was already too deep in it to feel panic.

Now, there was only the stifling, unbearable feeling of disappointment.

* * *

At the bench, Nagihiko took one look at Rima and glanced away. He couldn't have thought of anything to say if he tried.

They began to walk home.

* * *

_The queen probably didn't think up anything anyway for Utau to say. And even if she did, it probably wouldn't have been right._

"Are you okay?"

"No."

_She's trying to make you feel like this. That's why the challenge was so easy. You have to stop._

Stop what? She hadn't even started doing anything.

"Rima-chan –"

"Shut up." She had to take it out on someone, and Nagihiko was the only other person with her. Preparing herself to break the deadly calm and direct her anger at him, she waited for his answer.

"You need to let it go."

Of all the things he could have said, she hadn't expected this. She stared at him, stunned, not sure which of her feelings to react on. Finally, she chose bewilderment. "What?"

She expected him to grow nervous and get his point across with stutters or a rant, but his eyes – brown eyes – were sincere and unruffled. "You've been agonizing about this for a long time, right? I can tell."

The Rima from before would have been on a vicious defense immediately, screaming until she couldn't scream any longer that he didn't know anything about her, that he couldn't just tell her things like that like he was one to give advice. But the new Rima – no, the changed Rima, who was only a weaker, less composed Rima without the mask of ice and protective barriers that had been shattered by like glass along with the tiny speck that was humanity – didn't know what to do. The old façade of Rima, reduced to a voice in her head, told her to scream. The rest of her instincts told her to do everything else. "So?" she mumbled at last.

Now came the averted eyes, the uncertainty. "You…" He paused. "You should forget about it. I mean, I know you can't forget about it, but you can't just think about it all the time. When I first moved, I couldn't stop remembering, but it was in the past. It's over now. Remembering will just make you feel worse."

Pain welled up in her. Her old desire to lash out came with it for a second, but was quickly replaced by the one emotion that had not disappeared over time. Regret.

She started to cry, as she had so many times ever since her wish. "I can't. I've tried, but whenever I do, I always wish that I'd asked Utau about it. There's nothing that can change that. You don't have anything to regret. You came here, made friends with Amu, and became happy. I can't stop myself from wanting to know why, and I can't even tell myself that my life's better because I didn't ask. Don't compare yourself to me." There. She was blaming him again, like she had done before, in both thoughts and words, every other time he'd tried to help her. But it was made feebler by the tears trickling down her face.

_She's crying. _Nagihiko remembered that the last time it had happened, he'd sat next to her. Now, they were in the living room, she was standing, and unlike the last time, when he'd known somehow that he shouldn't touch her but just stay there, he didn't know what to do or not to do at all.

Again he stood there, unmoving, helpless, until she stopped.

"Nagihiko?" she asked quietly, taking a small, shuddering breath.

"Yeah?"

"Do you hate me?"

His eyes widened. "Of course not. Why?"

_Because you should._

She didn't answer, just went upstairs, brushing past him as she left.

* * *

The next time he saw her was an hour after he'd eaten lunch. This time, he'd made lunch for her, and as she ate it, she commented, "Why do you have to be better at me in everything except cutting hair?"

He blinked. Before he knew it, he'd replied, "Technically, if I'm better than you in something, you're better at being worse at that thing." Great, she was rubbing off on him. Even the manner in which he'd replied made him feel like a boy version of Rima.

"Great. You pass. Call me Rima."

"Huh?"

"Are you deaf?" she demanded. _Well,_ Nagihiko thought wryly, _she's back to normal now, at least. _"I'm saying that you pass in not treating me like a fragile doll. Call me Rima."

"Why?" He'd called her "Rima-chan" for so long, and it was only recently that she had stopped protesting against it. "Only Amu calls you that. And you hate it when I call you Rima-chan."

She shrugged. "That's right, I do hate it, because it makes me sound like a little girl. And yeah, Amu calls me that. So?"

"You keep telling me not to call you by your first name, and if anyone at school besides Amu called you Rima, you blackmailed them. What changed?"

Rima's eyes narrowed. "Or you can call me 'Mashiro-dono' and wait on me hand and foot."

"I can't do chores. By the way," he added, thinking of something, "What does what that baby said mean? I think it started with 'shoo'."

She stiffened at the mention of the kidnapping, yet answered anyway. "It was probably baby talk. It didn't make any sense."

"You know, Rima, it could mean something." Saying her name without the suffix felt completely different on his tongue. It made him feel strange and awkward, a lot stranger than when she'd started calling him "Nagihiko" instead of "Fujisaki", and he quickly figured out why.

"Whatever. Don't abuse the privilege." She ate her lunch in silence for a while, and looked up a few minutes later. "Nagihiko."

"Don't abuse the privilege." Definitely becoming more like her.

"You're annoying."

"Okay, sorry. Do you need anything?"

"Your eyes are brown."

He frowned, confused. "I know."

"I didn't."

"So?"

She didn't really have an answer to that, so she just said what was on her mind. He wouldn't understand, anyway. "How am I supposed to figure out who you are when you're changing?"

Nagihiko understood.

"I'm Nagihiko, my eyes are brown, I'm only changing as much as you are, and I don't want to call you Rima. That's all you really need to know about me, Rima-chan." She looked at him. "I'm not trying to offend you or anything, but calling you 'Rima' feels weird. It feels like…"

"Like?"

"You're trying to replace Amu with me. Only she ever had the right to call you 'Rima'. I mean, I get it, but I'll never be her, you know."

She looked down.

"Rima-chan?"

"Sorry," she muttered. "I'm –" She inhaled sharply. "I got really mad at Amu the day I made the wish. I wasn't thinking properly. It wasn't even her fault… and now I want her to come back so I can apologize. Just apologize."

"What happened that day?"

"It's the next memory."

There was an uncomfortable pause. "Oh."

"Sorry."

_Who do I like more, the new Rima or the old one? New Rima. Who should I like more? New Rima was born out of being with just me for a long time. Old Rima is her true self. I can't get used to her friendship, because we almost have humankind back. _But he laughed, brushing off his worries. "When were you the one apologizing all the time?"

She let out a quiet laugh. "Right, I'll stop. I don't know when I started saying it out loud instead of just in my head. I guess it's to make up for before."

_Or maybe this is the true Rima._

* * *

**Sorry it's a short (about 1500 words)/lame/what-the-heck-is-this-cheesy-stuff chapter, I just didn't know what to put in here. The last diamond will probably be covered next chapter, and then we can get to the good stuff – it involves the new challenge the queen will give Nagi, and I'm planning to make it the most epic (for lack of a better word) part in this story.**

**I want to talk more, but I don't really have anything to say. It's all in the chapter. My characters are weird. When have they not been? And the current Rimahiko relationship makes me stare at the screen and scratch my head with the hand that's not holding the string cheese. Huh. I used to be holding a tangerine slice in my hand.**

**The preview isn't italicized because the actual excerpt is in italics, like before. Yaya fans will want to ditch this story after the preview, but I swear that there's a REASON why she's so OOC. She's not acting like herself… because… she's… okay, cannot give spoilers even at cost of readers. You'll have to guess, but I promise that Yaya isn't a bad person in this story. Well, nobody is a bad person in this story. Not Utau, not the queen. They all have hearts. I hate stories with obvious, evil villains, because I think that in real life, nobody is truly evil. We're all part good and part bad. Wow, I sound like my friend that I argue with a lot who truly believes in fairies/unicorns and thinks puberty doesn't exist and only happens in stories, even though she's read ugly Amuto M-rated fics and has solid proof (I'm totally serious, but let's get off this awkward topic now). But I guess that's one opinion we share.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

"Hey, Yaya just wants to ask, is Rima-tan trying to get sympathy?" Yaya was normally sweet and incapable of anything but happiness or childish pouting, but the cute suffix "tan" didn't seem to match the expression on her face now. "Amu-chi – no, it's not Amu-chi, it's Amu. Stupid third-person." Her high-pitched voice became lower, angrier, and just like that, she seemed to have turned into a different person entirely. "Amu told me what you told her. Were you just trying to win back her favor with a sob story?"

"Amu… told you?" She felt like she was drowning. Amu had betrayed her that quickly?

Yaya's next words, practically screamed, felt ridiculous and true at the same time. "Do you really think that you can use your past to get special treatment now? Do you think that you're better than all of us? Well, what happened before is over, and you're the same as us now, so you don't deserve anything better than we do!"


	19. Challenge Begins

**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I was almost done with this thing when the computer wiped it out because I forgot to save it and I had to start ALL. OVER. AGAIN. I do not like starting things over. No huge author's note this time… but the basic gist of the one the computer wiped out was: I won't be updating as much, although I'm still finishing this story no matter what. Now I'm going to try to rewrite what I remember… sob… whatever you read next, the first version was WAY BETTER. I'm sorry for my incompetence and inability to write things twice.**

**Can you tell where I live from my writing style? One of my teachers told me that although we don't realize it, people from different places talk slightly differently, even if it's in the same country speaking the same language, and my way of speaking sometimes gets reflected into my writing. (Huge hint: Gonna gonna gonna wanna wanna wanna, though I don't use it in my writing… I think.) So… can you tell? And does this count as a huge author's note? Yes, it does. WHATEVER. I'M WRITING A HUGE AUTHOR'S NOTE THEN.**

**Yaya is NOT a bad person in this story. I said this before. Yes, she said these things in the chapter, but at the same time, she didn't. She was not possessed by the queen or anything. She was completely herself, yet she wasn't. It's hard to explain, and I won't explain it until we get to that portion of the story where it becomes important. Human emotions are weird – yes, I agree with the queen – and things are too murky now for me to say anything. Later, they will become clearer, but most people will still hate Yaya at that point, and THAT is when I explain that SHE IS A HUMAN BEING AND HUMAN BEINGS MAKE MISTAKES THAT, AHEM, SOMETIMES EVENTUALLY LEAD UP TO THE RIMAHIKO PAIRING. My point is that people expect characters to be idealized and slightly more perfect than human just because they usually are, but I'm not going to write characters like that. For example, you have to admit that Rima isn't perfect, but you can (hopefully) sympathize with her because she is actually HUMAN unlike some of the Mary-Sue-ish female protagonists I used to read. ET SHUTS UP NOW.**

* * *

In an odd way, he became her best friend over the next few weeks.**  
**  
She tried to convince herself that he was just replacing the missing Amu, and that when she came back, he would just fade away again. But it wasn't true. With Amu, it had been a never-ending game of pretending, pretending that she wasn't really a self-centered little girl so that Amu would like her, pretending that she would be a better friend than Nagihiko. But this was different. It was true that she had resented Nagihiko before, and still resented him whenever he got slightly annoying (but then he would apologize so much that she felt like her head would explode, which was even more annoying), but he understood her. He knew so much about her that if she even thought about pretending anything, he would become annoying again. It unnerved her sometimes, but he didn't make a big deal about it, so everything was fine.

He, in turn, was becoming relaxed – a bit too relaxed at times.

"I used to stalk you," he said randomly one day.

She nearly passed out. "What?"

"Yeah. I decided that I needed to learn more about you in order to be your friend, because you kept pushing me away. It was just for a few days, though, until I wandered to the library and saw you giggling over a comic book. It kind of creeped me out, since I didn't even know you could laugh –"

"You're being annoying again."

She waited for him to get a clue and stop apologizing before she removed her fingers from her ears.

Yet despite the obvious boredom and curiosity (Nagihiko for Rima's memory, Rima for Nagihiko's challenge) in the air, they delayed. They waited until they could not do so any longer, and finally, Rima told Nagihiko that she was going to show him the memory. "But I don't want to."

"Why not? You don't have much to lose." True, but unthinking and harsh. He was about to apologize when she stopped him.

"Look, that's not what I'm worried about. Back there, none of us were acting like ourselves, even Amu, and she was trying to be the peacemaker as usual. I think we were all scared out of our minds. This is what caused everything, so no matter what you go through later, don't blame Amu, or Yaya, or me. Blame the queen. She's the one who's making us do this. If you get caused pain, it's not our fault. Everything was in her control. Everything is still in her control –"

"So what you're just trying to tell me, in a very roundabout way that manages to drag Amu and Yaya into the whole thing, is not to blame you if I get hurt during the challenge, right?"

"Yeah." Rima scowled slightly, hating his accuracy.

"So you just don't want to show me the memory because the challenge comes afterward?"

"Don't ask it in question form when you know it's true."

"I won't blame you."

"Good. Now shut up and let's go."

"Rima."

No suffix. She turned, impatient. "Yeah?"

He just stared at her for a few seconds, and the beginnings of a question trailed out of his mouth. "Would…" Then, he shook his head. "Never mind. Let's go."

She decided that she would grill him about it later, and they left.

* * *

They appeared in the blank, white memory area, but this time, there was a note on the floor in huge, dark lettering.

******Your challenge is to help h****im with his.**

The identity of "him" was obvious enough, as was the meaning of the message. "Wow," Rima finally muttered. "I didn't expect that."

"Well, I have another person on my side, which is good, but I'm getting worried about what this challenge is going to consist of," Nagihiko sighed, sounding depressed. Then, he blinked. "Hey, Rima-chan, you're fading."

She was, so she closed her eyes and waited.

* * *

_The day after she had failed to trick Amu into believing the lie about Nagihiko and screamed at her instead, Rima apologized and told her everything. About her jealousy, her anger that Amu wouldn't spend enough time with her. And then, about the kidnapping. "I'm finally happy. I finally have a normal life. I didn't want that to be taken away, and that'll happen if you're taken away." Her exact words._  
_  
Amu promised that she wouldn't tell. Less than a week later, she broke her promise.  
_

* * *

_Yaya Yuiki had been avoiding her all morning._

_Rima wouldn't have thought much of it if it weren't for the suspicious manner in which Yaya had been avoiding her – after all, many girls hated or feared Rima, and Yaya was just an acquaintance through Amu who didn't have to stick to Rima's side. But whenever she came within a ten-foot radius of her, she would stare at Rima oddly and turn away, like she was wearing some ugly costume that the auburn-haired girl didn't even want to look at._

_Inevitably, Rima got annoyed and approached her. "Hey, Yaya."_

_"Oh! It's Rima-tan! Yaya hasn't seen Rima-tan in a while!" She grinned brightly, using her regular annoying third-person coupled with childish honorifics, and Rima had to wonder if she'd imagined everything. But she plowed on anyway._

_"Hey, can we talk somewhere else?"_

_"Sure!"_

_They entered an empty classroom, and Rima began to speak. "Why have you been avoiding me?"_

_"Huh? Yaya hasn't been avoiding Rima-tan, Yaya didn't even see her today!"_

_"Yes, you did, and I'm asking you to tell me why you kept running away looking like you were going to wet yourself." Rima's usual haughtiness, the one she usually reserved for people who hated her, came out. "Tell me."_

_Everything went downhill after that._

_"Go on. Just because you're a friend of Amu's doesn't mean I'll just let you keep silent."_

_"Hey, Yaya just wants to ask, is Rima-tan trying to get sympathy?" Yaya was normally sweet and incapable of anything but happiness or childish pouting, but the cute suffix "tan" didn't seem to match the expression on her face now. "Amu-chi – no, it's not Amu-chi, it's Amu. Stupid third-person." Her high-pitched voice became lower, angrier, and just like that, she seemed to have turned into a different person entirely. "Amu told me what you told her. Were you just trying to win back her favor with a sob story?"_

_"Amu… told you?" She felt like she was drowning. Amu had betrayed her that quickly?_

_Yaya's next words, practically screamed, felt ridiculous and true at the same time. "Do you really think that you can use your past to get special treatment now? Do you think that you're better than all of us? Well, what happened before is over, and you're the same as us now, so you don't deserve anything better than we do!"_

_She couldn't wrap her mind around all the words; suddenly, she was losing, as quickly as she had thought she would win. "Amu told you about what happened to me?"_

_Yaya froze, grew silent. Her clear, angry eyes seemed to cloud over, and she turned to leave._

_"Answer me."_

_"Amu-chi told Yaya." Third-person, again, like absolutely nothing had happened. Before Rima could even think of doing anything, though, the classroom door opened._

_"Yaya, what are you doing? I heard you. It's a surprise nobody else did." Amu. Rima looked down, trying not to meet either girl's eyes, not to let her fury spill out into the tiny classroom._

_"Amu-chi, Yaya's sorry, Yaya told her –"_

_"Yaya, I just said that I heard you. I know what you said."_

_"Yaya just got confused! Yaya didn't mean to say that!" Suddenly, Yaya sounded terrified, aghast, like she was going to cry._

_Amu sighed. "I know, okay? But that was what I told you not to do." She turned to the third girl in the room. "Rima –"_

_She glared at Yaya, ignoring Amu. "How could you say that?"_

_Rima gritted her teeth, trying not to cry, but it was too late. Tears leaked slowly out of her eyes as she screamed again, "How could you?"_

_Yaya shook her head frantically. "Yaya's sorry! Yaya didn't mean that! Yaya was wrong!"_

_Amu intervened. "Look, Rima, she was completely wrong, she never thought anything like that, anything –"_

_Rage filled Rima like never before. So even her best friend was trying to defend the other side. "I hate you! I wish you would all disappear! Every single one of you! Everybody!"_

_Out of the corner of her eye, Rima saw a shooting star pass. Her head snapped toward it, following its movement, and when she looked back, she gasped._

_Amu and Yaya had disappeared, faded into nothingness. Suddenly frightened, she ran into the hallway. Into every single classroom there was. She went everywhere she could think of, even the boys' bathroom._

_Everyone was gone._

_Rima stood there for a second, stunned, that moment replaying in her head. Her wish had come true._

_A strange smile appeared on her face as she went back to that room for her backpack. She put it on and turned towards the door to leave – and was suddenly face-to-face with Nagihiko Fujisaki. Her worst enemy._

* * *

When they were back on the bench, Nagihiko immediately took it upon himself to shatter the deafening silence. "What did Yaya mean when she said that she got confused?" he mumbled, not particularly curious. For the first time, he finally knew how Rima had felt about him – like everything she had once known about him was changing, like the color of his eyes, even though she just hadn't seen it before. Like Amu and Yaya had changed, though they had been the same the entire time. Just different to him, because he hadn't been able to see who they were… and still couldn't.

"She was telling the truth. She didn't mean it." Rima's voice was shaky. Nagihiko looked at her, stunned, and she tried to smile; her lips barely twitched upwards for a second before it broke. "I've gotten better at reading emotions when they're right in front of me. I couldn't do it before. Maybe it's because of you that I can. But… I really do think that she just got confused, although I can't figure out what she could have gotten confused about."

A tear trickled quietly down her face. "It's Utau. All over again. People do things that I can't understand, and by the time I think to ask why, it's too late. I'm losing all my chances. I can't do this anymore." She looked up at him, her eyes swimming with tears and pain. "Please, Nagihiko. Pass the challenge so I can find Yaya."

And she sobbed.

Nagihiko remembered the first time she'd cried. The second. This was the third. Slowly, awkwardly, he put his hand on her shoulder.

Just that, but it felt like he was doing something momentous, something that would change everything. Maybe he was.

She stopped crying. They stood up and went home.

* * *

The next day, the queen told them to go to her again. Rima tried to act annoyed for her own sake and his, but they were both, for lack of a better word, utterly freaked out. The familiar disorientation that accompanied the bench did nothing to help. Evidently wasting no time with formalities, the queen gave Nagihiko a sharp command as soon as he had recovered from traveling in the bench. "Drink this."

A wine glass hovered in front of her, filled halfway with a clear liquid that looked like water. It sat innocently there, not looking in any way out of the ordinary – immediately making Nagihiko suspicious. Rima seemed to have come to the same conclusion, frowning at the cup as if it was going to do something, but when Nagihiko caught her eye, she turned away. Apparently, she would rather have him drink something suspicious than give up her chances of talking to Yaya again.

He wasn't sure whether to be selfishly hurt or very, very relieved. "What is it?" he asked, tearing his gaze away from Rima.

"I cannot tell you anything about it before you drink it, except that the challenge will start once you do. I will satisfy your curiosity after you obey my wishes."

He told himself that humankind depended on this, stepped up, and drank.

Nothing happened, except that his heart raced faster at the silence. "Your Majesty… what…" He squeezed his hands into fists. "What did I drink?"

She just looked at him with a calm smile. A glimmer of satisfaction hovered below the surface.

"Your Majesty?"

"A love potion."

This paragraph is not part of the story, but you HAVE TO READ THIS. It's too important to put after the line break or to bold, because that would make it look like an author's note. This is NOT a plot hole. The queen still can't control human emotions in any shape or form. Basically, this means that what Nagihiko drank is NOT a love potion. **IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION. **Yes, I felt the need to bold that. **IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION. **Have I made myself clear yet? For further elaboration, read the author's note. I will explain a tiny little bit more. **(IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION.)**

* * *

**If you didn't read the paragraph right before the line break that's not bolded except for the parts saying IT IS NOT A LOVE POTION, then you need to read it NOW.**  
**  
Done? Okay. Now, normally, I wouldn't bother to tell you that WHAT NAGIHIKO DRANK IS NOT A LOVE POTION. I would let you be caught on a cliffhanger and wonder, "OMG I THOUGHT THE QUEEN COULDN'T CONTROL EMOTIONS! GASP!" HOWEVER, seeing as this is the trash-filled, utterly ruined Shugo Chara fandom (I won't change my opinion, either, unless better authors start writing here) where I can't find anything to read within the first ten pages without physically wanting to regurgitate my last meal, it's very likely that you would just think that this is a plot hole and ditch this story, convinced that I'm a horrible writer just like all the others. NO, THIS IS NOT A PLOT HOLE. NO, NAGIHIKO DID NOT DRINK A LOVE POTION. HE DID NOT DRINK ANYTHING THAT WOULD AFFECT HIS EMOTIONS, BECAUSE THE QUEEN CANNOT CHANGE EMOTIONS. Even so, he DID drink the next best thing, so it WILL act like a love potion, and the queen can convincingly pass it off as an authentic love potion without Rima or Nagi getting suspicious. It is definitely the closest thing to a love potion. That is all I can say. And yes, it is directed towards Rima (be warned, though: the potion is not going to bring them together. It's going to bring them farther apart, and overcoming that obstacle will bring them together. I do not like fake potion-induced love). And yes, they will travel. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHA. MWAHAHA. MWAHA. MWA. MWA. MWAHA. Yeah, I think there's enough suspense that losing a little won't be that big of a deal.**

**Yes, I directly included the scene from the prologue, and yes, I know you still don't get the challenge. That, my dear readers, is the POINT. You aren't supposed to know the challenge yet. The preview is just a teaser.**

**About the SC fandom: I've stopped reading Shugo Chara fanfiction, I honestly have. I'm happier reading the bigger fandoms like Naruto, where there are many, MANY brilliant authors that I can easily find, and I don't even like Shugo Chara anymore. At the same time, though, I will probably write Shugo Chara until the end of my fanfiction days (geez, I've only been here for a little over a year and I'm already talking about the end of my fanfiction days). Why? I know the characters so well that I can add layers to their normally two-dimensional personalities, and I could never do that with the Naruto characters, who I don't get at all. So… I don't know, I don't really have a motive for saying this, but the reason I am is because I just thought of this a few hours ago – when I was mulling over a conversation I had with my friend about writing Naruto instead of Shugo Chara. I can force myself to write Naruto, but I'll never do it as well as I do SC. So I'll always do SC. (Oddly, I was thinking about this because I'd actually agreed to start writing Naruto after finishing this story, only to realize that I really wanted to write SC.) Okay, RANT OVER. ET OUT.**

**Bye, and please review!**

* * *

_Preview:_

_They turned around, and were met by a girl and a boy who, at first glance, looked exactly like them. On closer inspection, though, the girl's hair was perfectly straight (Rima immediately thought of how easy it would be to comb that), while Rima's was wavy – and Rima noticed the difference in the boy almost before Nagihiko himself did, because his eyes were a vibrant, sparkling blue normally associated in her mind with the ocean._

_The blue-eyed boy grinned. "I'm Rhythm. This is Kusukusu."_

_Kusukusu giggled slightly at their shocked faces. "We're your alternate selves. You know, the ones your queen told you about. We're going to help you complete your challenge."_


	20. Alternates and Explanations

**Let me warn you: Rhythm and Kusukusu are so OOC that they might as well be OCs. It's just that I needed an alternate Rima and Nagi, and the logical people to use would be their Charas, but their personalities don't fit in with my story plot. There will be moments where I try to make them somewhat like the Rhythm and Kusukusu of Shugo Chara, but for now, just think of them as OCs. It'll work better for all of us. So don't associate them with the chibi Guardian Characters, otherwise you'll get confused.**

* * *

"Explain." It was not the stunned Nagihiko that said it, but Rima, who had already gotten over the shock and was utterly furious. "Love potion? Directed towards whom? And why?"

"Directed towards you, of course." Taking advantage of their speechlessness, she continued. "You will travel. More specifically, you will be sent out of this dimension into an alternate universe. There, your challenge will be to find my alternate self – the queen of that universe – and retrieve an antidote for the potion from her. She will give it to you, although not willingly, because she knows that I am putting you through challenges. Once you" – she looked at Nagihiko – "drink it, the challenge will be over, and you will return to this universe. However, seeing as all of this is probably too much to expect, you will have plenty of aid in the form of your own alternate selves, who know their own universe quite well and will be happy to assist you in finding the queen. Have I made myself clear?"

Rima let out both her and Nagihiko's thoughts in one breath. "This is insanity."

The queen went on as if she hadn't spoken. "The potion will not take immediate effect. I suggest that you maintain some distance when it does. I will send you to the other universe now." And before either of them could protest, the world shifted around them.

They were standing in a forest clearing, rays of sun shining down around them.

* * *

Rima didn't like being scared. She especially didn't like being scared of Nagihiko… so she lashed out, old Rima returning to the surface. "Stop freaking out," she told him haughtily, relieved to see that he was in fact freaking out – it meant that his mind wasn't completely plagued with thoughts of her yet. "It's annoying."

Was it that obvious? Nagihiko gritted his teeth. "You're not the one who drank the potion."

"I'm the one who's going to have to experience the aftereffects. Don't become like my fans, or I just might puke on you."

He could practically feel his normally controlled anger snapping. "Well, it's not –"

"Are you guys fighting?"

Had his own voice just come from behind him, or was the potion already making him hallucinate?

No, it was different. Lower. They turned around, and were met by a girl and a boy who, at first glance, looked exactly like them. On closer inspection, though, the girl's hair was perfectly straight (Rima immediately thought of how easy it would be to comb that), while Rima's was wavy – and Rima noticed the difference in the boy almost before Nagihiko himself did, because his eyes were a vibrant, sparkling blue normally associated in her mind with the ocean.

The blue-eyed boy grinned. "I'm Rhythm. This is Kusukusu."

Kusukusu giggled slightly at their shocked faces. "We're your alternate selves. You know, the ones your queen told you about. We're going to help you complete your challenge."

Rima looked dazed, still staring at her almost-mirror image. "So this is an alternate universe? Is everything the same here?"

"Of course not," Nagihiko replied automatically, not seeing her face grow first apprehensive, then darker. "If their hair and eyes are different, there must be bigger deviations as well."

"Oh, and I supposed you think you know everything?"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "Rima-chan, push me away after the potion takes effect, not before."

"Don't call me Rima-chan!"

He blinked, stunned.

Rhythm sighed. "Look, let's split up. Kusukusu, you take… Rima, right?" He tilted his head at Rima, and she nodded sullenly. "I'll take my alternate self. We'll go explain everything before we start our journey."

* * *

As Nagihiko and Rhythm left, Kusukusu turned to Rima, looking puzzled. "Hey, what am I supposed to explain?"

Oh, joy. "I don't know, maybe everything?"

"Everything like what?"

"Like what I'm supposed to do here, and where the heck this is? The queen says it's an alternate universe. What's an alternate universe and why do you look almost exactly like me?"

"Wait…" Kusukusu's eyes narrowed, and suddenly, she went from innocently confused to – Rima couldn't figure out why – irritated. "You come from the universe that doesn't know about magic, right? That's what he meant by explaining. Um, let's see… alternate universes are usually really different, but also the same." She looked at her alternate self. "Do you get it?"

"No."

"Oh, well, you don't have enough magic knowledge. I can't explain well if you don't know anything at all, but I guess I'll try. Alternate universes aren't completely the same. There are always differences. There has to be, or else…" She shrugged. "Something to do with the balance of magic or nature or something, I don't know. Anyway, sometimes those differences are controlled by the queen, sometimes not. Like, in our universe, we rely a lot on magic, because our queen doesn't like using technology. And there's a lot of nature. No pollution, and no buildings if they're not tiny little straw houses. If you stripped us of our magic, our universe would probably fall apart." She said this casually, making Rima think that nobody really believed it was possible.

"So what about the differences not controlled by the queen?"

"Those are little ones. They're the ones that are controlled by the balance of nature, not by the queen's will. Like my hair and Rhythm's eyes. In another alternate universe I went to, everyone was the opposite gender, and they had a king."

Rima was interested. "You've gone to other alternate universes before? This happens often?"

"As if! That one was the only one I went to, with Rhythm. Our society is different from yours. Your queen told us all about yours, so I know. Is it actually true that you guys don't even know about the existence of magic? Is it even possible to live with that kind of ignorance? Or is it just that you know magic exists but don't have any access to it?"

"Whatever. Tell me about your society."

She frowned. "Bossy."

"Hey, I'm your alternate self."

Kusukusu's eyes widened. "I was going to tell you about that. Not only are our appearances different, our personalities are changed a little, too. At birth, it's actually not as dramatic as the appearance change, but when you live in different environments for your lives, the tiny differences become huge. So it leads to some weird things, especially in your universe where nobody knows about magic or alternate universes, which I thought wasn't even possible when your queen –"

"What weird things? Just hurry and tell me."

"Hey, you should treat your alternate self a little better. I'm going to be helping you, you know."

"What? I treat everyone like this."

Kusukusu sighed. "Geez, you're just as bad as my guy alternate self. Why are all my alternates like this?" She seemed to be talking to herself now more than Rima. "I mean, I've only met you two, but – oh, wait, I was going to tell you about how our societies are different, right? But I was also going to talk about weird things because of our differences, right? I should talk about that first."

"Stop jumping from place to place. I can't even remember anything you said anymore."

"Hey, Rhythm can do this better than me! Do you want him to tell you?"

Going to Rhythm would mean having to face Nagihiko sooner. "No, you can tell me."

"Our societies and alternate selves are usually really different from each other because of these tiny, natural differences that expand upon each other. But the thing is, all our universes are linked, and some things have to remain the same, like population and health. One alternate can't be alive while another one in a different universe is dead, and one alternate can't be on the verge of death while another is perfectly healthy. So, if you were killed in a car accident in your universe or something, I would definitely die, maybe from falling from a tree or getting injured in some other way because we don't have cars. If you came down with a fever, I would definitely get sick in some way. I might have a stomachache, or I might just be really tired that day, or I might get a fever too, but I wouldn't be happy and bouncing around. We're all connected in some way, which is why it's so ridiculous that you don't know about magic – even if your queen didn't tell you, I can't believe your 'scientists' haven't figured it out yet. I mean, your queen said that there are a lot of mysterious incidents of people disappearing, and a bunch of sicknesses and disorders that don't have cures yet – can't your people tell that there aren't that many coincidences –"

The idea that her life depended on the lives of countless others started to make Rima paranoid. She didn't say anything, though. "Get to the point."

"Stop interrupting me!"

"Get to the point and stop making fun of 'my people'."

They were definitely not off to a good start.

"Fine, then," she huffed. "Anyway, with every moment our universes are connected to each other, yours gets more and more confused because you don't know about magic. There was once a situation where two people were really good friends in one universe, but mortal enemies in another. In the universe where they were enemies, one person went berserk and killed the other. In the universe where they were friends, the guy went berserk and killed himself, causing the person in the enemy universe –"

"Enemy universe?"

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay, fine. I get what you mean."

"The person in the universe-where-they-were-enemies," she said, glaring, "killed himself too, because he had to die, after killing his enemy-friend. Of course, the universe where they were enemies was your universe, and don't tell me I could have said that before. Your scientists were completely bewildered, trying to find out why he would have done that, because apparently in your universe there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. They ended up saying that he went crazy, even though he obviously didn't. That's just one example of how you guys jump to conclusions because you don't know things."

"I thought I told you not to insult the people from my universe?"

"You're the one who made them disappear," she retorted quietly. "The queen told me everything. You don't have a right to tell me what I can say about them."

"That was an accident."

"Well, either way, it's your fault we have to put up with each other now." There. They didn't like each other, and now it was sealed. "Let's go find Rhythm and Nagihiko."

Kusukusu walked away. Rima followed, fuming.

If Rhythm was anything like Kusukusu, she wasn't going to be able to stand this place.

* * *

After he told Kusukusu to explain things to Rima, Rhythm beckoned to Nagihiko and entered the forest, away from the clearing.

Even with the heavy shade of the trees, sunlight still filtered in through the branches. Nagihiko shed his thin jacket and tied it around his waist. "Is the weather always like this?" he asked, thinking of the cool weather they had just left behind in their universe. Suddenly, he felt completely lost.

"Yeah, in this region. We have to travel a long way to meet the queen. It'll be colder there."

"Travel?"

"Hey, come up here." Rhythm's voice came from above now. Nagihiko looked up to see that he was sitting on a high branch in a tree. As he patted it, it swayed slightly, but he seemed not to notice.

"Um…"

"I can think better up here. I have to explain a lot of stuff to you."

"I can't climb trees," he admitted, looking down.

Rhythm made a small choking sound. "What? How can you not know how to climb trees?"

It didn't make him feel any better. "I didn't really feel the need to learn. When I was little, I spent my entire time practicing dance, and later, I played basketball and hung out with Amu and Tadase."

Rhythm hopped down from the tree, even though the branch had to be at least seven feet high, and said, "Look, I have no idea what basketball is, because the queen only gave me the basics about your universe, and I don't know who Amu and Tadase are. I know you didn't know that magic existed until recently, and I'm okay with that, but you're missing out if you can't climb a tree. I'll piggyback you up there, and we'll talk."

"P-piggyback? What if you fall?"

"Come on, I piggybacked Kusukusu, Ran, and Pepe to the top. I'm pretty sure you're lighter than all of them combined."

Still apprehensive, he asked, "Who are Ran and Pepe?"

Rhythm laughed. "Seriously? Okay, Ran and Pepe are…" He closed his eyes. "Um… wait, I'm bad at this. They're…" He opened his eyes, grinning victoriously. "Ran is the alternate of Amu Hinamori from your universe. Pepe is the alternate of Yaya Yuiki. They live in the same area you do, so you should know them, and they're about the same weight and height. Wait, is the Amu you were talking about? Ran's alternate?"

"I think, but… how did you figure that out?"

"I said, we'll talk about it up there."

So Nagihiko gave up and got on Rhythm's back, and Rhythm climbed to the highest branch of the tree. "Hey, I'm going to let go –"

"Wait, don't!"

"Okay, fine." He turned to the side, straddling the branch. "Can you get off now?"

Feeling humiliated, Nagihiko got off and eased himself onto the branch. Rhythm turned back forward. "Okay, how do I explain this…" And he told everything Kusukusu had told Rima to Nagihiko. "Yeah, that's basically all I know."

"So the alternates are all connected?" Nagihiko asked. "How many are there?"

"As many as there are universes. How many, I don't know. Definitely over the billions."

Billions of people's lives were connected to his. Needless to say, Nagihiko was nervous. Seeing the expression on his face, Rhythm laughed. "Hey, it's not that big of a deal! You've survived this long, right? And actually…" He frowned slightly. "It's mostly because of your universe that people die in the others in the first place."

"What do you mean?"

"Your universe doesn't know about magic. It's the only one. If it did, then the queen could just use her magic to make sure nobody died at all. She rules the entire universe, you know; and she could make other planets inhabitable, in case your planet had too many people. But since people have been used to the cycle of life and death so long, she can't just suddenly have nobody die at all. People would get scared."

"Why didn't our queen just tell everyone about magic in the first place?"

"She tried, but everyone she told went crazy or something like that, so she gave up. You two are the only ones who've accepted it, and that's just because you're still kids. I don't know why. The other universes had no trouble accepting everything." He looked away, suddenly solemn. "Kusukusu blames your kind. I'm not sure if she's right, but she says that you guys are different, and you're stubborn and stupid and always think that you're right about everything. Her best friend is Ran, and Ran used to be really cheerful and nice until her boyfriend Yoru died. Now, she's not the same anymore, and neither is Yoru's sister, Eru. It's worse for Eru because their parents died several years ago, so she has nobody to support her except for us. Kusukusu hates people from your universe because Yoru's alternate died there, causing the chain reaction. She says that if you guys weren't so stupid, Ran and Eru wouldn't have become like this." Rhythm seemed to realize what he was saying. "I mean –"

Nagihiko shook his head. "No, I don't blame you." He wondered, though, what she was saying to Rima right now. "But didn't you say that the health levels of all the alternates are also the same? So what about Amu?"

"Health, not emotions. For example, Kusukusu and I are pretty good friends, but you and Rima…"

He thought about saying that they had been on okay terms before the love potion, but he changed his mind. "Yeah, I guess. So is that it?"

"Yup. Do you want me to carry you down?"

Nagihiko winced, but fear of injury won over pride. "Yeah, sure."

It was only after they were safely on ground did he realize that Rhythm had never told him how he'd found out who Ran and Pepe's alternate selves were in his head.

He dismissed it as more magic.

* * *

**Yeah, it's actually slightly important how Rhythm knows about people's alternate selves. It's not completely essential to the story, and I admit that I could have done without it, but… it's still slightly important.**

**For those of you who have stuck with this story since the beginning, do you remember when I asked all those lame questions in the prologue? I don't need them anymore… at all. I guess I thought that since they were alone in the universe together, there would be a lot of fillers, but there were barely any, and none of them involved the questions I was asking. O.O**

**There's a tiny, tiny hint about Utau's past and motives in here. Extra hint: Guess who Utau's alternate self is. Extra extra hint: Eru. Extra extra extra hint: Guess whether Utau had any siblings. Extra extra extra extra hint: Reread the paragraph about Yoru's death.**

**Okay, I'm SORRY that everyone has a tragic-ish past in this story. It's lame and cliché, and I'll try to not do that in the next story/stories I write. But for now, I'm stuck with this. I actually thought about giving Amu a bad past, too (namely, making Ami, her younger sister, be the little girl that the queen failed to stop from being murdered), but that would be pointless and even more cliché. So yeah, Amu is the only blessedly normal one in this story.**

**Again, nobody is a bad person in this story. Kusukusu is just bitter, and she assumes that all people from that one universe are the same. She'll get along with Rima later. Rhythm's personality is… interesting, to say the least – I've barely skimmed the surface in this one chapter. You'll see later, right after the potion takes effect. Mwahahahahaha.**

**Preview is lame, sorry, couldn't think of anything.**

**Bye, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review because I need some good feedback right now! (And please, try and take the time to say what you liked most, too, so I can do it some more? XD)**

* * *

_Preview:_

_"Nah, everyone in this universe has some degree of magical power." Rhythm continued as if nothing had happened. "The queen distributes it. We're only kids, though, so we don't have a lot… but Kusukusu and I have more power than most of the other kids our age." He grinned again. "We'll have plenty of time to show off later, though. Our priority now is to get to the portal before Nagihiko's potion starts taking him over completely." Nagihiko and Rima shifted slightly._

_"Now… our journey begins!"_

_And they set off._


	21. Control

**I think I just realized that this story might be a turn-off to some religious people. You know… queen of universe? Sorry about that… but I must go on with the story.**

**Awkwardness in this chapter, and some of the backstory as to how the queen has some random dude lurking around and asking her questions and just generally being there for her to tolerate (so I can explain things in the queen's point of view without always writing an out-of-place ER and disrupting the flow of the story), because I needed one. It's as lame as the Amu thing…**

* * *

"Your Highness, wasn't the point of all this to be able to master human emotion? So you could control this universe's inhabitants properly, like you were supposed to?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"How were you able to create a love potion, Your Highness? Love is the most complex of all human emotions."

"It was not a love potion." She watched him dispassionately, unwavering, unblinking. "It was a potion that tethers him to this universe, so that I can control him even in another one."

"Your Highness, didn't you say that you couldn't control humans?"

"I cannot control their will. However, after years of experience, I can control natural forces flawlessly. Even though I cannot make a human pick up an object by changing his will, I can force his arm to move without clouding his mind, soul, and judgment a bit. I cannot make a baby learn how to walk, but I can force it to walk. I do not usually do this, because the human becomes afraid of the temporary lapse in control and is usually labeled with mental disease by other humans, but seeing as I have already convinced the human in question that he has swallowed a love potion, I will control him from this universe and force him to make actions… that may have emotional reactions." A humorlessly bitter laugh sounded from her throat. "Merely a century ago, I would have been convinced that it would work. However, that is not the case now. Now, I will just see how everything plays out."

"Your Highness…"

"Yes?"

She saw a flicker of an unclear emotion in his eyes, and her own eyes immediately became alert. "If something goes wrong and they fail their purpose, or if you end up doing something irreversible to them, will you bring them here like me?"

"You should not care," she replied carefully after a few moments, staring at him. "I eradicated your emotions and memories so many years ago to try and find out more about the human mind… and programmed you with a complete loyalty to me when I had gained the bare amount of information there was to be found, because I did not know how to give anything I had taken back."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Are you lonely? Do you… desire that I keep them here with you, like you are, forever?"

"No, Your Highness."

"Do you think that you are regaining your emotions?"

"I don't know, Your Highness."

"What do you think you are feeling now?"

"I don't know, Your Highness."

"Do you have any of your memories back?"

"No, Your Highness."

"Do you want to know what happened?"

A pause. "Yes," he whispered. "I do, Your Highness."

She contemplated it. Why not? If he was really regaining his emotions, she could use him as a test subject too – she had seen emotions and personality develop in countless babies. Maybe she could compare that development to a grown man's.

Telling him his past could be a perfect start.

"Your life was ruined anyway, so taking your humanity did not amount to much," she said quietly. "You were the father of the girl I failed to save. The girl that started all of this." And she forced him to leave after that.

* * *

"Now that we're all here, I suppose that I should explain," Rhythm said once he and Nagihiko had come back to the clearing. "We're going to have to travel a long way to meet the queen. She doesn't bother to place a lot of portals –"

"Portals?" Rima asked.

He grinned. "Like the bench you use. She doesn't bother to place a lot of portals around, so the nearest one is still really far away. We'll be traveling for a few weeks. Kusukusu and I have enough magical power to supply all four of us with the stuff we need –"

"I thought only the queen had magic."

Kusukusu turned to Rima, annoyed. "Can you keep your ignorance to yourself?"

Rima glowered furiously, but kept her mouth shut.

"Nah, everyone in this universe has some degree of magical power." Rhythm continued as if nothing had happened. "The queen distributes it. We're only kids, though, so we don't have a lot… but Kusukusu and I have more power than most of the other kids our age." He grinned again. "We'll have plenty of time to show off later, though. Our priority now is to get to the portal before Nagihiko's potion starts taking him over completely." Nagihiko and Rima shifted slightly.

"Now… our journey begins!"

And they set off.

After about an hour of traveling (jogging to Rima and Kusukusu, fast-paced walking to Nagihiko and Rhythm), Rima dropped to her knees on the ground, sweat pouring from her forehead along with any leftover traces of pride. "R… rest," she gasped. Everyone was tired thanks to the pace that Rhythm had kept up, but Rima actually decided to lie down on the forest floor, unable to keep herself up any longer.

Kusukusu rolled her eyes, and Rhythm just shrugged. "Okay, we'll take a break here." To Rima's complete shock, he began to climb a tree, moving so fast that he was out of her sight in seconds. "We've still got a lot of traveling to do," he called, getting down again.

"Show-off," Kusukusu sighed, while Rima, who had automatically gotten to her feet so she could see better, stared openly.

"What?"

"You know the route by heart, and even if you didn't, you could just find it in your head in half the time it took to scale that tree."

"Right." He laughed sheepishly. "Okay, you've got me. Anyone want food?"

"You don't get this glory too. I'm better with magic than you are."

"Go ahead."

Kusukusu made a strange swishing motion with her hands. Nothing happened. "I'm out of energy," she sighed, and clapped her hands, face screwed up in concentration.

For a full minute.

Finally, just as Rima was about to tease her for looking stupid and not accomplishing anything, a huge picnic spread out on a blanket appeared, and Kusukusu flopped onto the floor much like Rima had, her palms red and her mouth curved up into a pleased smile. "Done."

"This is overkill. We're not going to eat it all," Rhythm commented, grinning slightly.

"There's something called saving the food for later, you know? I'd rather use up all my energy now."

"Or maybe the food will inadvertently fall down my throat, and you'll be so tired by then that you'll have to start scratching symbols on your eyelids with your toenails to produce even the smallest crumb of bread."

"That's not going to happen even on the verge of death."

Rhythm gave in, smirking. "Hey," he called to Rima and Nagihiko, "I saw a possible place for us to set up camp that I think we can… barely reach by nightfall, if we hurry. We're going to go check it out, so save some food for us."

"How?" Rima asked, reluctantly curious. "You just said we could reach it by nightfall only if we hurry."

"We'll transport ourselves there – it only takes a second. We would do this to the portal and be done with it, but we're helping you guys and we don't have enough magical power to transport people along with us." To prove his point, he disappeared – not quickly; he faded out of sight like Rima and Nagihiko had before reliving a memory, and like Amu and Yaya had when Rima had made the wish.

"He's already there," Kusukusu said, and disappeared too – although much more slowly, as if it caused her pain (it probably did, as she had just created the huge feast before).

Forgetting his anger before, Nagihiko turned to Rima, picking up something from on top of the blanket and eating it absentmindedly. "Do you get the feeling that we're just a burden? They can just go wherever they want whenever they want, and yet they're traveling on foot because of us… and Kusukusu has to create extra food for us too."

"We're the reason they're even going to the queen in the first place."

"Well, I suppose. But did they agree to help us willingly, or were they ordered to by –"

And suddenly, he leaned forward and kissed her.

It stunned him. He honestly hadn't planned to do it at all, hadn't planned to move from his original position; in fact, the next words "the two queens" were on the tip of his tongue. Yet somehow, here he was…

Kissing her.

Kissing her?

For some reason, even though his mind was already perfectly clear, he seemed to snap back to reality, recoiling back from her as quickly as he could and already trying to decipher her reaction. Although she was as shocked as he was, she was doing the same, and he could tell.

So, thinking of nothing else he could say or do, he ran.

* * *

It was ironic how he could make her feel like a terrible person by doing something that she'd tried to prevent by purposefully acting terrible. Now that the potion had finally taken effect, she didn't want to push him away anymore…

And honestly? She missed the old Nagihiko already, but at the same time, she wanted to hit him over and over again for not resisting the potion more. Was Nagihiko just going to become another brainless fanboy, running after her, shouting her name, and offering gifts? She began to eat, having nothing else to take her mind off of it.

Rhythm and Kusukusu returned, the former carrying the unconscious latter. Seeing Rima's questioning gaze, he said, "She was determined to make the space bigger, so she cleared a huge tree completely before passing out. Where's Nagihiko? Once he comes back, we'll set off again. I'll carry Kusukusu; she'll probably be awake by the time we get there."

"Na – Fujisaki's run off somewhere." She hesitated and added, "The love potion took effect."

His eyes glimmered slightly with amusement. "Really. Shouldn't he be… trying to cuddle a little more, then?"

Rima blushed, realizing that it was a good point. "I don't know. Maybe it didn't take over fully."

"Love potions don't –" Rhythm stopped. "Never mind," he said, setting Kusukusu down gently and sitting down next to Rima. "Let's eat lunch."

They ate Kusukusu's food in silence. After they were both full (there was still a lot of food left over – enough for Nagihiko and Kusukusu, along with some leftovers for the next day), Rhythm asked abruptly, "Hey, do you know how to climb trees?"

"No, why?"

His eyes widened slightly. "Seriously?"

"Yeah? Is there something wrong with that?" She glared, hating that she was obviously the least athletic of the group.

"Not really. Not now, at least. We like athleticism, so kids are taught to climb trees when they're five, sometimes younger. That's basically what we do all the time – exercise and practice magic. Some people like to do one more than the other. But the basic skill is climbing a tree, so it's just kind of weird. Hey, do you want me to teach you?"

"Sorry, I'm tired." It was more that she felt awkward, with this Nagihiko look-alike (except for the eyes) sitting next to her and acting nothing like Nagihiko. She ran the conversation through her head, putting Nagihiko in Rhythm's place.

_"Yeah? Is there something wrong with that?"_

"Oh… sorry! It's just that kids climb trees at a really young age here, so I was confused, that's all… but there's nothing wrong with not being able to climb trees at all! I'm sorry for –"

"I get it. Stop apologizing before you give me a headache."

And then he would be so busy trying not to hurt her feelings that he would never offer to actually help her climb the tree, because he'd never think that assistance might actually be more useful in making her feel better than a bunch of apologies. Then again, Rhythm was the opposite – either he didn't really care what people felt (not in a mean way, though; he seemed pretty nice), or he was oblivious… like Amu. He answered questions in the most straightforward way, not bothering with little things like apologies ("Not really. Not now, at least. We like athleticism…"), and didn't really try to hide his emotions, even if they might make the other feel bad ("Seriously?"). So, in a sense, they weren't meant to be alternates either, just like Rima and Kusukusu.

Rima blinked, realizing the calculations she was making in her head. When had she become an expert on emotions and personalities? Definitely not before the wish. Not soon after the wish, either, when she had been trying to find out what Nagihiko was really like under the nice façade he always wore (he had thankfully ditched the sickly sweet part of the nice façade, but still apologized too much).

Maybe the wish had actually done some good… but she would rather have humankind back. And speaking of which…

"Did everyone in your universe disappear too?"

"No. The queen didn't actually kill anyone in your universe. She sent them… someplace," he replied, gesturing vaguely. "It's hard to explain if you don't have any magic knowledge. We're a long way from actual civilization, though, so there's nobody here."

Hard to explain without magic knowledge… just as Kusukusu had said, except that his comment wasn't spiteful like hers.

"Can you show me Amu's alternate self?" she asked quickly. She had seen nobody except Nagihiko and the queen, and now these alternates… the uniquely pink hair she used to grimace at would now be a huge relief, even if it didn't actually belong to her best friend; after all, Rima wasn't foolish enough to believe that Amu's alternate would be anything like her.

"Amu? Amu Hinamori?"

"Yes!"

"I'll show you if you let me teach you how to climb a tree."

"Why?"

"I'm bored." She suspected that it wasn't the reason, due to the odd glint in his eyes, but it didn't really matter.

"Sure."

"Okay, get on my back. First, you have to get used to the feeling of being in a tree. I got this directly from the lessons, by the way, so sorry if it seems a little lame."

"You have lessons for climbing trees?"

"Yeah. Our school basically consists of physical education class, magic theory, the history of magic, which is really boring, and actually performing magic. We already know everything there is to know about math or science or whatever you call it thanks to the queen, so we focus on other things. Get on my back, I'll piggyback you up."

"Are you… sure?"

"Come on, do you want me to tell you about the time I carried Kusukusu, Amu's alternate, and Yaya's alternate up there all at once?"

How did he know about Amu and Yaya in the first place? Right, Nagihiko had probably told him. Reluctantly, she got on his back. When they got to the top, he put her down on a branch and let her reorient herself. "It's freaky," she admitted, staring down at the ground below. "We're, like, twenty feet high."

"That's how everyone feels. Lesson two: getting down!"

Her eyes grew wide. "What?"

"Getting down. Do it by yourself. You'll want to do it right because if you fail, you'll probably break a couple of bones. We're actually fifteen feet high, so your guess was pretty accurate." And suddenly, so quickly she could barely register it, he had let go of the branch, dropped down about five feet, and caught another one. "Bye, I'm going to find Nagihiko!" He dropped down again.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

He was gone. Completely, wholly, and entirely gone. She honestly could not see him now. Suddenly, remembering the desert-jungle challenge and the unbearable pain that had followed after that, she felt frozen with fear.

Move. She had to move. As she slowly made her way to the tree trunk, though, she realized too late that there were actually small grooves in the tree that could be used as footholds, and where she put her foot next wasn't one of them. She fell, unable to do anything but squeeze her eyes shut and convince herself that fifteen feet wasn't that much. But instead of hitting the ground or another tree branch, she was caught… by Rhythm? Or Nagihiko?

The answer was confirmed with the blue eyes that stared down at her.

"Oops," Rhythm laughed. "Well, it works for some people."

They were on flat ground, and she gradually lost her sense of panic. "I thought you were going to find Nagihiko." She wanted to say "Fujisaki", but it was too late. "What works?"

"Well, I wasn't actually going to let you get injured in case you fell, but it works on some people when I tell them that they're going to get hurt if they fail. They learn faster like that. It's worse for some other people, though, so I just wanted to see."

"So you lied to me." It shouldn't have been a big deal – his intentions obviously weren't bad – but she felt herself growing angry, much angrier than she had in a while. She'd been so scared, especially after that challenge…

Rhythm looked puzzled at her expression. "Well, yeah, I guess."

That was it. Rima whirled around and stormed away, not knowing where she was going, only that she needed to get away. "Where are you going?" he called.

She turned around, her eyes dark with rage. "Away from you."

With that, she went into the forest, leaving a bewildered Rhythm in her wake.

* * *

**Completely unedited because I'm honestly not in the mood, so it might suck. I would have spelled at least five hundred words wrong, too, if not for Microsoft Word… but in my defense, I'm still kind of wondering how to get Rima and Nagihiko together, fix Rima and Kusukusu's relationship, fix Rima and Rhythm's relationship, come up with a name for Rima/Kusukusu's guy alternate, figure out how the guy alternate and Temari's personalities are going to be like, figure out how their universe is going to be like because of course it has to be radically different from both Rima/Nagi's and Kusukusu/Rhythm's, make the queen slightly less of a jerk, make the guy that the queen took emotions from regain some of his emotion by watching Rima and Nagihiko, and I-cannot-tell-you-any-more-because-I've-already-given-too-many-spoilers by the time they (Rima and Nagi) get back to their universe. Oh, yeah, and manage all the character development that comes with that. Of course, I can't exactly do it in a single chapter, so I have to stretch it and plot it out and OW my left ear hurts.  
**  
**Yeah. Sorry if the whole chapter just reeks of unprofessionalism (which is totally a word [really {no reverse psychology here and absolutely no sarcasm, either}]).**

**The point I was trying to make in this chapter is that Rhythm is sort of the opposite of Nagihiko. They were both born with a naturally friendly personality, but… you know… environmental factors. Nagihiko tries to please too much, probably because of his mom. Meanwhile, it's not that Rhythm doesn't care about other people's feelings, it's more that because he's naturally friendly, he's never really been required to think about others all that much without being passed off as a jerk… to anyone else but sensitive Rima. Basically, he's oblivious.  
**  
**I get fewer reviews when I beg, so I will not ask for reviews this time. I will not. I WILL NOT. (Reverse psychology). But seriously, if you just favorite and/or alert and never review… I know who you are. I remember your penname. I remember you as "the person who never reviewed, NOT ONCE". Mwahahahahaha. But I'm just joking, so you do not have to review at all. (More reverse psychology.)  
**  
**Okay, I give up… review? Please? One little smiley (or sad… or annoyed or pissed) face and I'll be satisfied. I wouldn't have been satisfied before. I HAVE BEEN LOWERED. You happy? Yup, you happy. You so happy that you review, because you are not "the person who never reviewed, NOT ONCE" (hopefully, I am making lots of NOT ONCE people feel guilty with this. Probably not).**

**Mwahahahahaha (again). Let's see if this works.**

**Bye, and *ahem* PLEASE REVIEW!**

**(Okay, I'm kind of being a jerk with this whole thing because I barely ever reply to reviews… but your reward is… an update, which you already get without reviewing but whatever. I'm not going to be one of those people who say I'll update when I get [insert number] reviews or something. Replies, however, are a privilege you will receive when your review is so long that I can't read the whole thing through email and contains lots and lots and LOTS AND LOTS of obnoxious questions – and don't worry about the obnoxious part, because non-obnoxious questions aren't worth answering. We'll strike up a conversation, and THEN you can tell me what a greedy/annoying/review-pinching hypocrite/bit**/old lady I am. Ain't that the truth. Besides, it's better than being a NOT ONCE person LOL OKAY ET SHUTS HER BIG FAT UGLY PIMPLED BOCA NOW.) **

* * *

_"Preview":_

_Ugh, okay, sorry. I feel weird right now after the review rant, so I'll just tell you that Rima's gonna fall in a river. None of that dramatic vague stuff that usually goes here. She'll fall into a river. The end. Period. Oh, great, I'm going to regret not putting "dramatic vague stuff" here later, but what can I say? We all get sick of it at some point. I have a feeling this is going to turn into another rant again… WHY DOES "GOOD WRITING" ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SO DRAMATIC AND VAGUE I ONLY TRY TO WRITE IT BECAUSE PEOPLE READ IT BUT ||THE END DONE||_


	22. You guys are going to HATE me for this

**READ THIS FIRST: I AM NOT DISCONTINUING THIS. I WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER DISCONTINUE THIS. AND DEPENDING ON THE DEFINITION OF HIATUS, I DON'T THINK I'M ON HIATUS EITHER.**

Oh, great, I'm so sorry. I didn't think I'd have to resort to this, ever. I didn't even resort to this during that huge two-month wait.

But that was different.

Then, I was just too lazy to write anything at all. This… this is a huge onslaught of pure WRITER'S BLOCK SYNDROME (WBS), no minerals added for taste, and I have never, ever, ever, EVER felt ANYTHING like it before. My brain's immune system is completely defenseless (okay, you know I'm just joking, right? There is no WBS. But you get the point), and I'm trying, seriously, but I can't crank out anything at all worth reading. Take the worst chapter of this story and multiply the badness (which is seriously a word) level by twenty. That's how terrible the next chapter is turning out to be.

So I am not discontinuing this AT ALL, but I'm just warning you that there will most likely be a long long wait for the next chapter while I swallow lightbulb-sized antibiotic pills to try and kill the writer's block germs floating around in my skull, happily chewing what's left of my brain. Hopefully, if I survive this, I'll build up my own natural immunization (that's what I keep telling myself, at least).

But just in case you aren't satisfied…

**POSSIBLE REASONS FOR MY CASE OF WBS:**

1. Too little remaining interest in het. You know, heterosexual pairings… because I've been reading a LOT of shounen-ai/yaoi recently. It's the most flimsy excuse ever, especially considering that I can't write shounen-ai either, but since we're talking about Vanished, it can go here.

2. Too little remaining inspiration. Now, by inspiration, I actually don't mean my desire to write. I have as much desire to write as I have desire to murder these rotten little WBS germs, which is a lot of desire. When I say inspiration, I mean "knowing what to write". I never had this problem before in the Diamond Arc, because I had everything planned out to pretty much the paragraph. In the AU Arc, that wasn't the case.

I'll admit it. I didn't skip the preview because I felt weird after ranting about reviews; I freaked out trying to write it because I had NO IDEA what to put. Basically, I had not planned out a single plot point of the next chapter, which was a bit scary considering that this was the first time it had happened to me EVER in a SINGLE STORY. So I just said that Rima would fall into a river, which was actually a minor plot point that I hadn't planned to happen for another five or six chapters… but it went there because I couldn't think of anything. It's not that bad now, plot-wise. Currently, I have the chapter (but just that chapter and nothing else) plotted out in a logical order, and it actually does involve Rima falling into a river – so I didn't lie. If this is the reason for my WBS, though, then it was too late already.

3. Too little remaining interest in the pairing. I will admit something: I love the plot of this story. I really, really want to keep writing it, and that's pretty much why I'm writing it. I will also admit something else: I started liking Rimahiko, the actual pairing, only through fanfiction. Before fanfiction, my OTP was absolutely and utterly Amuto (which I now hate for some reason), and Rimahiko might as well have been a crack pairing to me. And because I started liking Rimahiko through fanfiction, I can also start disliking it through fanfiction, which is why I've started avoiding the SC archive (I haven't checked it in about five months now) so completely – I don't want to start hating Rimahiko just because all the fanfiction for it sucks, and I don't want to read bad fanfiction either way. But because my opinion about Rimahiko can change through fanfiction… I can also become apathetic to it once I stop reading the fanfiction, and that's what's happening. I am avoiding Rimahiko fanfics like a bad case of WBS, and the Shugo Chara series has long since ended. Therefore, I'm becoming apathetic to Rimahiko.

HELLO, PEOPLE. THIS IS YOUR CUE TO START ACTUALLY PAYING ATTENTION IN ENGLISH CLASS.

4. Too little time to write fanfiction. Do I really have to explain this? I will anyway. I have too much homework from "normal school", I'm enrolled in too many extracurricular classes (each with its fair share of homework), and there are a bunch of competitions that are coming up (two, but whatever). And I have a foreign language. Plus a foreign foreign language. Plus English, which I just had to mention even though it counts as part of "normal school". No, I'm not in college yet, so I CANNOT RELAX. A friend of mine pretty much has her entire life planned out up to getting a job, which freaks me out since I don't even know what classes I'll be taking in two years. Is this too much information? Yeah, it's too much information. YOU GET THE POINT.

5. More interest in humor. Nothing on fanfiction really made me laugh before (it's hard to make me really laugh, and I don't mean a fake laugh, which I always use), so I didn't really care about humor. And that's why there is no attempt whatsoever to display humor in Vanished, except maybe in the author's notes where I could kick back and relax. Now, I've been craving humor for some reason, and while I've found a little in various fandoms, it's not nearly enough. And this leads to the great Search for Humor in Any Place Possible Including Boring Newspapers, which makes me ditch all my fanfic-writing duties. It doesn't help that Vanished is… dramatic. Throughout the entire story. Maybe I could make it humorous in the Humankind is Back Arc (no, it's not really called that, but I don't really name my arcs either way, so whatever), but I have a long way to go before the queen finally brings Amu and Yaya and Utau back for me to toy with.

And if you are still not satisfied and still want me to just post the freakin' chapter already, let me present…

**DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF WBS:**

1. Complete inability to write emotions. I blame this on reasons two, three, and maybe five of the "Possible Reasons" list. In my writing, portraying characters and their feelings well takes first priority (next to mechanics like grammar and spelling), but I can't seem to do that at all. Everything is flat in my writing. I would put an excerpt here from my most recent attempt to write the next chapter, but I'm far too embarrassed.

2. Loss of years' worth of mechanics, notably grammar/vocab/"flow" skills. I'm confident that I can get this back after the WBS is over (if the WBS will ever be over, I mean. But that's too depressing to think about), but for now, my grammar, vocabulary, and ability to make the story flow (see, I can't even find a word for this. That's why I put "flow" in quotation marks) are at my fifth-grade level. There's no noticeable difference for grammar and vocabulary, especially with good old Microsoft Word helping me out, but my "flow" abilities (if only I could find a word for it) are completely and utterly dead. Trying to make it flow better only makes it much, much worse. I wish I could put an excerpt here, but again, I'm far too embarrassed.

3. Sheer negativity. It might not seem like a big deal, but it is. If I disapproved slightly of my writing before, I'm downright nitpicky now (and, in reference to reason two in this list, I had to use the synonym feature for Microsoft Word in this sentence at least seven times so I didn't have to repeat the same words over and over again), and that isn't good when my writing is worse than ever. Now, I'm just a huge pessimist, and I want to hide behind a wall whenever I write something. (Not sure how hiding behind a wall works, but you get the point. I think I say that too much.) And sheer negativity = the chapter takes FOREVER to get done.

4. No desire to write. There, I said it. I know that in the other list, I said that I had a lot of desire to write, but that was BEFORE the WBS. This is now. Don't get confused. Anyway, this is kind of related to reason three in this list, but I'm making it separate anyway because there's still a difference. When you try to write, and your writing sucks, and more importantly, when you THINK it sucks, you do not want to write anymore. It's a fact of life. Wow, this is so depressing… I need my mojo back. (I don't actually know what mojo means, I just saw it on another profile and thought it seemed cool.) And you may not CARE that I don't want to write, but believe me, there's a difference in quality when the same author wants or doesn't want to write the story.

5. Angel and WBS devil germ, fighting over whether to use drama. You know how sometimes I try to make the story dramatic by… using fragments and repeating things over and over again and making a bunch of new paragraphs with one or two important/epic words each? And things like that? It's really useful, and sometimes I like doing that, but WBS makes me hate the dramatics (well, I was slowly declining into that anyway. Maybe that showed that WBS was slowly infecting my brain from the start or something) a LOT. I try to write it, and I think, "Why can't I just be straightforward?" Then, the metaphorical angel on my shoulder says, "You have to! Making things dramatic is part of writing! It pleases the readers!" Then, the metaphorical devil on my shoulder (or rather, the extremely large WBS germ dressed as a devil on my shoulder) says, "You know what, if you're so annoyed by it, then just don't do it at all! Just write an author's note saying that you'll be away for some time and let us chew on your brain!" And despite the fact that I do not like the germs chewing on my brain, I only have two choices now: publish a terrible chapter or listen to the devil. So this is me, typing up these lists, listening to the devil. Whoop-a-dee-doo.

Yeah… I can't write anymore because my brain has already been through about 1045762476352387234895984369 2340234610259061015861904856 0652839589341 separate WBS germs, and overheating won't help its condition any. So… I'm going to stop… as soon as I reach exactly 2000 words. See, I told you I was a perfectionist.

**In case some of you forgot the bolded message at the top of this author's note, I will not be discontinuing this, and depending on the meaning of hiatus, which I'm not sure of, I don't think I'll be on hiatus either. Because I won't be taking a break from writing. I'll still be struggling to write regularly (or as regularly as I can – see reason four of the "Possible Reasons" list), except that (see reasons three and four of the "Detrimental Effects" list) it will be much harder for the next chapter to meet my expectations, so it might be a long time until the chapter is actually published. Basically, this is just a warning of a possibly long wait.**

PERFECTIONIST TIME

After I complete this sentence, I will have exactly 21 words to go.

After I complete this sentence, I will have exactly 8 words to go.

After this, only 3 words.

Bye for now.


End file.
